Georgia county sued over delay in mailing out ballots

2/11/2024 5:45

        A county in the U.S. state
        of Georgia violated the law by failing to promptly send out some
        3,000 mail-in ballots for Tuesday's election that were requested
        by the deadline, a group of civil rights groups said in a
        lawsuit filed on Friday.
        
        Under Georgia state law, eligible voters may request an
        absentee ballot up to 11 days before any election. In their
        lawsuit, the rights groups asked a judge to extend the return
        deadline on the ballots in Georgia's Cobb County by three days
        to Nov. 8.
        
        County authorities declined a request for comment on the
        lawsuit. On Thursday, the county's election board said that, as
        of Wednesday, the ballots had still not been mailed out. It said
        it was working with postal and delivery companies to expedite
        them and ensure their timely return.
        
        "With Election Day approaching, these voters are still
        without their absentee ballots. Without immediate action, these
        voters may be denied their constitutional right to vote," the
        American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement.
        
        The ACLU was joined in filing the lawsuit by its Georgia
        state chapter and by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
        
        Georgia is one of seven battleground states in the Nov. 5
        election, which opinion polls show to be a tight race between
        Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former
        President Donald Trump.
        
        Cobb County is a large and racially diverse area in
        Atlanta's northern suburbs, and a place where Democrats could
        pick up votes they need to win the state.
        
        Over 3.8 million people have already cast their ballots in
        Georgia in early voting, accounting for more than half the
        state's active voters, according to data from the Georgia
        secretary of state's website. The tally includes more than
        230,000 absentee voters.
        
        In a statement on Thursday, Cobb County said that absentee
        ballot requests had surged to an average of 750 per day in the
        last week, with 985 requests submitted on the Oct. 25 deadline.
        
        "Unfortunately, we were unprepared for the surge in requests
        and lacked the necessary equipment to process the ballots
        quickly," Cobb County Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas
        said on Thursday.