Judge Orders Georgia County Election Board to Extend Absentee Ballot

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Cobb County failed to send absentee ballots on time to approximately 3,240 voters who can now use prepaid express mail to return them by Nov. 8.

A judge ordered a Georgia election board to rectify a failure to mail more than 3,000 absentee ballots on time.

The judge issued the order on Friday afternoon, Nov. 1, in response to a complaint filed that morning by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of voters who requested emergency injunctive relief.

Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy agreed with the plaintiffs, stating that the election board “failed to timely send absentee ballots to approximately 3,240 voters,” which violates Georgia’s Election Integrity Act of 2021, also known as Georgia Senate Bill 202.

According to the complaint, state law allows voters to request absentee mail-in ballots up to 11 days before the election. The deadline for this request was Oct. 25.

However, on Oct. 31, the Cobb County Board of Elections issued a statement saying it had not yet mailed more than 3,000 absentee ballots that were requested before the deadline.

The election board blamed a “surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications” and said it would be “collaborating with postal and delivery companies to expedite sending ballots to voters and ensure their timely return.”

The board also said it was having issues with its in-house equipment used to mail the ballots.

“After our vendor’s final run on Friday, we needed to utilize our in-house equipment for the final shipment of ballots, but the equipment was not working properly,” Elections Director Tate Fall said.

“By the time we got the equipment online, the deadline for mailing the ballots had passed, prompting us to work with the US Postal Service and UPS to take extraordinary measures. Our team has been working around the clock to get the ballots out.”

In addition to ordering the board to mail absentee ballots with a prepaid express return “on or before Nov. 1,” Judge Flournoy extended the deadline for Cobb County voters to return their absentee ballots. He ordered the board to accept and count ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 8.

“The ruling to extend the deadline for ballot receipts is a significant win for Cobb County voters using absentee ballots,” Poy Winichakul, SPLC’s voting rights attorney, said in a statement. “Our clients and more than 3,000 similarly situated voters will now receive an overnight ballot in the mail, and the extension will ensure that their ballots are properly received and counted.”

The election board issued an update on Nov. 3 acknowledging the judge’s order and how it is complying.

“An absentee ballot was mailed via express delivery to all Affected Voters that live in the United States, together with a pre-paid express return envelope,” the election board said. “If you are an Affected Voter that lives outside of the United States, a Federal Write in Absentee Ballot (FWAB) was sent to you via email.

“If you are an Affected Voter, your ballot MUST be postmarked by 7 PM on November 5 (Election Day) AND received in the Cobb Elections Office by 5 PM on Friday, November 8.”