MARIETTA, Ga. — Georgia’s third-largest county is operating late in mailing greater than 3,000 absentee ballots to voters simply just a few days earlier than the election.
To ship the ballots on time, election officers in Cobb County north of Atlanta had been utilizing U.S. Postal Service categorical mail and UPS in a single day supply, and sending the ballots with pay as you go categorical return envelopes.
“We wish to keep voter belief by being clear concerning the state of affairs,” county Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas mentioned in a press release Thursday. “We’re taking each potential step to get these ballots to the voters who requested them.”
Silas blamed the delay on defective tools and a late surge in absentee poll requests throughout the week earlier than the Oct. 25 deadline.
Nonetheless, a choose dominated Friday that Cobb County voters receiving their absentee ballots late can return them by Nov. 8, three days after Election Day, so long as they’re postmarked by Tuesday, The Atlanta Journal-Structure reported.
The ruling got here after the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Legislation Heart filed a lawsuit looking for to increase the deadline.
Georgia voters have shattered early turnout information since advance voting started Oct. 15.
As of Friday afternoon, greater than 3.8 million ballots, reflecting greater than half the state’s energetic voters, had been solid, in keeping with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s workplace. The tally consists of greater than 238,000 absentees.
In Cobb County, election officers mentioned voters whose awaiting absentee ballots had been late may nonetheless vote in-person on the remaining day of early voting Friday or on Tuesday. The county’s election headquarters deliberate to remain open to just accept hand-delivered absentees via the weekend and on Monday.
Nonetheless, the Board of Elections mentioned that greater than 1,000 of the absentee ballots being mailed late had been being despatched to individuals exterior of Georgia.
A county spokesperson, Ross Cavitt, declined to remark Friday on what quantity, if any, of the late ballots nonetheless wanted to be mailed, citing pending litigation.
The civil rights teams’ lawsuit was filed on behalf of three Cobb County voters who mentioned they nonetheless had not acquired absentee ballots by mail as of Friday. The lawsuit mentioned that though county election officers “have taken some steps to assist alleviate the issue, these actions usually are not practically sufficient to safeguard their proper to vote.”
Supply hyperlink
