A judge in Georgia dismissed a Republican lawsuit on Saturday that aimed to prevent voters from hand-delivering mail-in ballots over the weekend. The suit specifically targeted Fulton County, a heavily Democratic area that includes Atlanta and holds a significant portion of Georgia's electorate. However, the ruling also affected several other Democratic-leaning counties that had decided to keep election offices open on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate voters returning absentee ballots.
The lawsuit, filed late Friday by attorney Alex Kaufman, argued that ballot drop boxes could not remain open after early voting ended on Friday. Kaufman initially claimed that state law prohibited voters from hand-delivering absentee ballots sent by mail. However, Georgia law explicitly allows voters to deliver their absentee ballots to county election offices until the close of polls on Election Day at 7 p.m. Judge Kevin Farmer, presiding over the emergency online hearing, repeatedly rejected Kaufman's arguments.
"I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots," Judge Farmer stated in his ruling, affirming that the law supports weekend ballot hand-return. He dismissed Kaufman's subsequent assertion that voters should only be able to hand in ballots on Election Day, even though mailed ballots could arrive anytime during the weekend.
Fulton County, which has faced heightened scrutiny from Republicans since the 2020 election, was a focal point of the lawsuit. President Donald Trump narrowly lost Georgia in 2020, and in the aftermath, Fulton County became a frequent target of fraud allegations. Georgia's GOP Chairman Josh McKoon expressed concern, accusing Democratic-controlled counties of "illegally accepting ballots." The issue gained traction among Republican activists online, fueled by Fulton County election officials initially stating that partisan poll watchers would not be allowed in the offices where ballots were returned.
Fulton County elections director Nadine Williams clarified that these were county offices, not polling places, and therefore did not require observers. However, later in the day, Williams updated her stance, allowing the process to be open to the public. In an email, she explained, "no credentials or badges were needed" for observers. She added that an independent monitoring team overseeing Fulton's election procedures was on site, along with investigators from the secretary of state's office.
According to Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez, only 105 ballots had been received at four locations by 5 p.m. Saturday, illustrating modest turnout despite the extended office hours. The allowance for voters to hand in ballots over the weekend is a routine practice in Georgia, though this year's extended hours for ballot returns over the weekend have drawn partisan debate.
