Georgia judge rejects Republican lawsuit seeking to block acceptance of hand-returned mail ballots in Fulton County

A Georgia choose on Saturday rejected a Republican lawsuit making an attempt to dam counties from opening election workplaces on Saturday and Sunday to let voters hand of their mail ballots in particular person.

The lawsuit solely named Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that features a lot of the metropolis of Atlanta and is dwelling to 11% of the state’s voters. However a minimum of 5 different populous counties that are likely to vote for Democrats additionally introduced election workplaces would open over the weekend to permit hand return of absentee ballots.

The lawsuit was filed late Friday and cited a piece of Georgia legislation that claims poll drop packing containers can’t be open previous the top of advance voting, which ended Friday. However state legislation says voters can ship their absentee ballots in particular person to county election workplaces till the shut of polls at 7 p.m. on Election Day. Regardless of that clear wording, lawyer Alex Kaufman initially claimed in an emergency listening to Saturday that voters aren’t allowed to hand-deliver absentee ballots that have been mailed to them.

Kaufman then argued that voters needs to be blocked from hand-delivering their ballots between the shut of early in-person voting on Friday and the start of Election Day on Tuesday, although he stated it was high-quality for ballots to reach by mail throughout that interval. It has lengthy been the apply for Georgia election workplaces to simply accept mail ballots over-the-counter.

Fulton County Superior Courtroom Choose Kevin Farmer, in an internet listening to, repeatedly rejected Kaufman’s arguments earlier than orally ruling in opposition to him.

“I discover that it’s not a violation of these two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,” Farmer stated.

Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez stated that as of simply earlier than 5 p.m. Saturday, 105 ballots had been obtained on the 4 places.  

“All voters returning absentee ballots in particular person to the Division of Registration & Elections should signal an affidavit indicating whether or not they’re returning the poll for themselves or a certified member of the family, family member or particular person of their care,” the Fulton County Division of Registration & Elections stated in a information launch Saturday night. 

Republicans have been targeted on the conduct of elections in Fulton County for years, after President Donald Trump falsely blamed Fulton County workers for defrauding him of the 2020 election in Georgia.

State GOP chairman Josh McKoon accused counties managed by Democrats of “illegally accepting ballots.” The problem rapidly gained traction on-line Saturday amongst Republican activists, significantly after a Fulton County election official despatched an e-mail to elections employees saying that observers wouldn’t be allowed to sit down inside election workplaces whereas ballots have been turned in.

Fulton County elections director Nadine Williams stated through the listening to that these have been county workplaces and never polling locations, and thus partisan ballot watchers have by no means been allowed to watch these areas.

However hours later, Williams despatched out an e-mail clarifying that the method needs to be open to the general public and no credentials or badges have been wanted. She famous that members of the impartial monitoring crew that’s observing Fulton County’s election processes have been additionally on web site and that investigators from the secretary of state’s workplace may additionally be current.