Last week, Republicans congratulated themselves for their YUUUGE courtroom victory in Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign successfully petitioned for an injunction extending the deadline to cast their absentee ballots in person — essentially a labor-intensive workaround for Pennsylvania’s ban on early, in-person voting.
Churlish commentators (it me!) noted that the GOP is not usually in the habit of increasing access to the ballot, and their whole schtick is that the 2020 election was #RIGGED because courts changed the rules in the middle of the game to accommodate COVID safety protocols. But fear not! Trump and his minions have returned to form and are now spamming state and federal dockets with garbage lawsuits seeking to prevent ballot access.
The fun began Friday in Georgia where regular Trump campaign lawyer Alex Kaufman sought emergency relief on behalf of the Fulton County Republican Party and the Georgia GOP. The petition (via Democracy Docket) alleged that county election officials were illegally accepting hand-delivered absentee ballots over the weekend in violation of O.C.G.A. §21-2-385.
Which makes complete sense, except that the provision of law cited applies to ballot drop boxes only, not absentee ballots hand delivered to the registrar. Indeed, the very statute cited in this case says “the elector shall then personally mail or personally deliver same to the board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk.” Which is exactly what Judge Kevin Farmer told Kaufman when he tossed the case this weekend.
But Kaufman was not deterred! Instead he marched into the Southern District of Georgia, this time on behalf of the RNC, and filed the same damn complaint. Only this time he added an extra 14 pages complaining that allowing people to hand deliver absentee ballots in some counties but not others violates the Equal Protection Clause. Plus he added election officials in Chatham, Cobb, Clarke, Clayton, Gwinnett, and DeKalb Counties as defendants. Because if the registrars responsible for counting a tiny minority of counties refuse to keep their offices open on election day, then election officials representing the vast majority of the state’s residents must also keep their doors closed. It says so in the Constitution! (It does not.)
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger noted that the issue was not ambiguous as a matter of state law.
Under state law, election officials can receive absentee ballots in person at govt facilities if the county chooses.
Several counties have chosen to do this.
We are working with the counties and the political parties to ensure this is done transparently and within Georgia law.
— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) November 2, 2024
“To be clear, no election laws were broken in Georgia today,” echoed his deputy Gabriel Sterling. “The law clearly states that govt buildings can be used to receive absentee ballots. A judge said so this morning.”
This afternoon, the parties appeared before US District Judge R. Stan Baker for a scheduling hearing. The defendants will have until 9am tomorrow to file their responses opposing the motion for preliminary injunction/TRO, with a hearing to follow at 12. Lawyers for Fulton County pushed back hardest in court, stating upfront that they do not believe Judge Baker has jurisdiction and refusing to voluntarily sequester the ballots at issue, since Judge Farmer already told them they had no obligation to do so as a matter of Georgia law. Kaufman tried mightily to convince the court to order the County to do it anyway — effectively a pre-preliminary injunction — but Judge Baker refused.
So tomorrow we can hear the RNC explain to a federal judge why eligible voters who cast their ballots in accordance with the law as understood by local election officials, the Georgia Secretary of State, and a Georgia state judge should be disenfranchised.
Good to see the GOP back to their old selves!
RNC v. Mahoney [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
