Judge rules against GOP over weekend absentee ballot returns in Georgia

A federal judge ruled against Republicans in a challenge to Democratic strongholds in Georgia that opened locations over the weekend and Monday for voters to return their absentee ballots in person.

U.S. District Judge Stan Baker said Tuesday that the Republican National Committee (RNC) and state Republicans “would not likely succeed” on the merits of their claim, declining their request to set aside about 2,000 absentee ballots returned by hand over the weekend and Monday.

“The plaintiffs cannot satisfy their burden,” he said, later adding that Republicans’ claim is “factually and legally incorrect.”

State and national Republicans filed the lawsuit Sunday, asserting the counties’ practice violated the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and its delegation of elections authority to state legislatures. The lawsuit came after Republicans’ lawsuit in state court failed on Saturday.

“The law is clear — the period of advance voting is over,” lawyers for the RNC wrote in the complaint. “But that hasn’t stopped Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Athens-Clarke, Clayton, and Chatham counties from announcing at the eleventh hour that they will open this weekend and Monday for voters to return absentee ballots.”

During a hearing Tuesday afternoon, Georgia Republican Party executive director Justin Rice testified that the party planned to spend the weekend pushing voters to cast their ballots on Election Day but had to divert resources when they learned county locations remained open, costing time and money.

“We misused our resources because of this,” he said.

But lawyers for the counties who were sued pushed back, many noting that notice was published in advance — whether state Republicans realized it or not — and that some counties elected to keep locations open after the end of in-person early voting in previous years.

Lawyers for Athens-Clarke County said that the county’s elections office was closed on Saturday and Sunday, but because of the lawsuit, it sequestered hand-delivered ballots received on Monday.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) intervened in the case, arguing that Georgia law allows for absentee ballots to be returned until the polls close on Election Day.

“Every aspect of this process is expressly permitted by Georgia’s election code,” lawyers for the DNC said, also asking the judge to toss out Republicans’ request.

Baker seemed skeptical and confused by Republicans’ argument during Tuesday’s hearing, intently questioning lawyers for the RNC about their primary claim.

“So, it’s your argument that I could fill [an absentee ballot] out yesterday, but I just couldn’t deliver it?” Baker asked a lawyer for the RNC.

The judge also questioned why just those seven counties were taken to court over their practices, when it was unclear in the case’s record whether other counties also allowed in-person absentee ballot returns after early voting closed. He called arguments that Republican poll watchers were prevented from being present a “red herring.”

The counties make up the core of Democrats’ base in Georgia. In 2020, President Biden won all seven when he flipped the key battleground state blue in the presidential race for the first time in nearly three decades. The Decision Desk HQ/The Hill election forecast estimates former President Trump now has a 63 percent chance of winning the state.