Judge Requires Georgia County Election Board to Prolong Absentee Ballot Deadline
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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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.
“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.”
