The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that certain absentee ballots can only be counted if they arrive by Election Day, a move that will set aside at least 3,000 late-arriving ballots pending further litigation.
The decision by the state’s highest court marks a monumental victory for the Republican National Committee‘s election integrity efforts. The RNC’s appeal was in response to a lower court judge who extended the deadline for counting around 3,000 absentee ballots to Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. after Cobb County officials admitted to failing to mail out a certain subset of ballots on time.
“HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley posted to X on Monday afternoon as he applauded the state Supreme Court’s decision to reverse a lower court’s order and maintain that all ballots must be postmarked and received by Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Superior Court Senior Judge Robert E. Flournoy III ordered Cobb County last week to “process received ballots by Affected Voters” so long as their ballots were postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day, and that those ballots could be counted for the general election until 5 p.m. on Nov. 8.
“Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court,” Whatley said.
The Georgia Supreme Court’s decision means that any late-arriving ballots by the roughly 3,000 “Affected Voters” that come in after Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. will be set aside for now, barring any potential appeals to the Supreme Court.
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The Georgia Supreme Court noted that the order “does not pertain to voters entitled to vote under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act,” which pertains to military and overseas voters.
According to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s Office, “All ballots postmarked by the date of the primary, election, or runoff will be counted if received within three days of Election Day” for those subject to UOCAVA.