Georgia judge rejects GOP lawsuit seeking to block counties from accepting hand-returned mail-in ballots

ATLANTA — A Georgia judge on Saturday dismissed a Republican lawsuit that sought to block counties from opening election offices on Saturdays and Sundays to allow voters to drop off mail-in ballots in person.

The lawsuit named only Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of Atlanta and is home to 11 percent of the state’s voters. But at least five other populous counties that tend to vote Democratic also announced that election offices would open over the weekend to allow absentee ballots to be returned by hand.

The lawsuit was filed late Friday and cited a section of Georgia law that says ballot boxes cannot be opened after early voting ends, which ended Friday. But state law says voters can drop off their ballots in person at county election offices until polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day. Despite that clear wording, attorney Alex Kaufman initially argued in an emergency hearing Saturday that voters are not allowed to hand-deliver absentee ballots mailed to them.

Kaufman then argued that voters should be blocked from turning in their ballots between the end of early in-person voting on Friday and the start of Election Day on Tuesday, even though he said it’s fine for ballots to arrive by mail that day. period. . It has long been the practice of election offices in Georgia to accept mail-in ballots at the counter.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer, in an online hearing, repeatedly rejected Kaufman’s arguments before orally ruling against him.

“I believe it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to return absentee ballots,” Farmer said.

Republicans have focused on holding elections in Fulton County for years after President Donald Trump falsely accused Fulton County workers of defrauding him about the 2020 Georgia election.

State GOP Chairman Josh McKoon accused Democratic-controlled counties of “illegally accepting ballots.” The issue quickly gained traction online Saturday among Republican activists, particularly after a Fulton County election official emailed election workers saying observers would not be allowed to sit in election offices while ballots are being cast .

Fulton County Elections Director Nadine Williams said during the hearing that these are county offices and not polling places, and therefore partisan poll watchers were never allowed to observe those spaces.

But a few hours later, Williams sent an email clarifying that the process should be open to the public and no credentials or badges were required. She noted that members of the independent monitoring team that observes election processes in Fulton County were also on the scene and that investigators from the secretary of state’s office may also be present.

Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said as of mid-afternoon Saturday, fewer than 30 ballots had been received at the four locations.