Background: Cobb County Elections & Voter Registration (WXIA/YouTube). Inset left: Donald Trump in a political ad that aired on NBC on Nov. 3, 2024 (X/Donald J. Trump). Inset right: Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at Little Chute High School, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Little Chute, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday night reversed a lower-court ruling to extend the absentee ballot deadline in Cobb County, one of the swing state’s top battleground counties, after election officials there admitted to not sending out more than 3,000 ballots on time.
“The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration (the ‘Board’) may count only those absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024,” wrote Georgia‘s highest court in its Nov. 4 ruling.
“The Board shall notify the Affected Voters of the 7:00 p.m., November 5, 2024, deadline for return of their absentee ballots in the same manner as delineated by the trial court in its November 1, 2024 order — i.e., by email, text message, and by releasing a public announcement on the Board’s website,” the ruling said.
Election officials in Cobb County have been scrambling to deliver at least 3,200 absentee ballots after the state’s Oct. 25 deadline after admitting last week in a statement that internal issues led to the delay.
“Absentee ballot requests had been averaging around 440 per day, but in the last week, that number surged to 750 per day, with 985 requests submitted on Friday’s deadline,” election officials said in an Oct. 31 statement, which blamed the mishap on an alleged “surge” of last-minute absentee ballot applications.
“Elections workers will send most of them via USPS Express Mail or UPS Overnight Delivery by Friday morning,” the board promised. “These ballots will include prepaid express return envelopes to ensure voters can return them by Tuesday’s deadline.”
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In response, lawsuits were filed against Cobb County officials by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party of Georgia and a number of civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center.
The parties asked that Cobb County’s Board of Elections extend the ballot-receipt deadline for all of the affected voters, moving it from Nov. 5 to Nov. 8, which is the same deadline that overseas voters have to turn in their ballots. A lower judge in Cobb County granted the extension, prompting an appeal from the Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party and Monday’s supreme court decision.
“The Plaintiffs claim a burden on their right to vote, but the Georgia Constitution does not guarantee a right to vote by mail,” Republicans wrote in their appeal. “Voters still have many options to vote, including by voting in person or delivering their absentee ballots in person.”
Cobb County, according to U.S. News, is one of the top counties to watch in the 2024 presidential election, as it continues to be a highly contested political trophy in the battleground Peach State.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley praised the Georgia Supreme Court for ruling in favor of the reversal, calling it a “HUGE election integrity victory” for GOP voters.
“Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline,” Whatley wrote on X Monday. “We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court. We just got word that we WON the case. Election Day is Election Day — not the week after. We will keep fighting, keep winning, and keep sharing updates.”
ACLU officials have sent out instructions to “affected voters” urging them to “prioritize voting in person” on Election Day as a result of this ruling, noting how it will cancel out their request for an absentee ballot. If there are voters who cannot do this for some reason, the civil rights group suggests filling out and hand delivering ballots to the county elections office before the 7 p.m. deadline.
“If neither is an option, we urge voters to immediately send their ballot back to the county via overnight delivery, if possible,” the ACLU says. “Only as a last resort, should voters simply mail their ballots. Unfortunately, there are voters who will not be able to access the remaining options and will not have their voices heard in this election as a result of this ruling.”
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