Republicans sue Georgia’s largest counties in bid to restrict mail ballot return access

Republicans sued two of Georgia’s largest counties Thursday over local policies that help voters return absentee ballots, escalating the party’s campaign to restrict voting access in the battleground state ahead of the midterm elections.

The Republican National Committee, Georgia Republican Party, Fulton County Republican Party, Gwinnett County Republican Party and state Rep. Tim Fleming (R), the GOP nominee for Georgia secretary of state, filed twin anti-voting lawsuits against election board members in Fulton and Gwinnett counties.

The lawsuits challenge county policies that allow voters to return absentee ballots at advance voting or alternate locations. In plain terms, Republicans are asking the court to block counties from giving voters more places to safely hand in their mail-in ballots.

The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief — meaning they want a court to declare the policies illegal and stop counties from using them.

“Georgia law permits three means of voting ABM [Absentee by Mail] ballots,” the Fulton lawsuit says. “In reality, this new process is an attempt by the Fulton County BOE [Board of Elections] to make an end-run around Georgia law limiting the number of ABM ballot drop boxes permitted in a county.”

The Gwinnett lawsuit uses nearly identical language, accusing the county of creating an unauthorized process where voters can hand absentee ballots to poll workers, who stamp them and place them in secured ballot bags.

The cases are the latest fight over Senate Bill 202 (SB 202), Georgia’s notorious 2021 anti-voting law that restricted mail-in voting after President Joe Biden won the state in 2020. The law sharply limited drop boxes and became a model for Republican efforts nationwide to make voting harder under the banner of “election integrity.”

In Fulton County, Republicans are targeting a policy approved in April that allowed voters to return absentee ballots at 22 advance voting locations. In Gwinnett County, they are challenging a policy adopted in 2024 that allows absentee ballots to be returned at advance voting locations or alternate sites established by the county board.

The lawsuits come just days after Fleming won the Republican runoff for secretary of state, putting him one election away from becoming Georgia’s top election official. That office oversees elections, guides local election officials and helps certify statewide results — an especially powerful role in a battleground state where Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020.

Fleming has made restrictive voting policies central to his campaign. 

According to his campaign, he would “champion voter ID and election transparency,” “deport any illegals attempting to vote in Georgia” and “make it impossible for the Left to cheat in our elections.”

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Georgia’s 2020 election. The state’s results were confirmed three times, including once by hand, and multiple lawsuits failed to overturn Biden’s victory.

That makes the new lawsuits more than a technical dispute over ballot return rules. 

They are part of a broader Republican push to weaponize SB 202 against local election officials who try to make voting more accessible — especially in large, diverse counties where voters may face long travel distances, mail delays or limited time to return ballots.

If successful, the lawsuits could make it harder for Georgians to return absentee ballots in two of the state’s most populous counties and could invite copycat challenges against other pro-voter local policies.