The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that Cobb County may not accept absentee ballots after Election Day, overturning a lower court decision that extended the ballot receipt deadline to Nov. 8 for over 3,000 voters who received late ballots.
In a Nov. 4 order, the state Supreme Court granted an emergency motion by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Georgia Republican Party, allowing only absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 to be counted in Cobb County.
However, any absentee ballots from the “Affected Voters”—as defined by lower court order—that are received after the Election Day deadline but before 5 p.m. on Nov. 8 will be kept separate and secure, not counted, and not destroyed until further order of the court, per the order.
The Cobb County Board of Elections has been ordered to notify the affected voters that they are now subject to the Nov. 5 deadline, which a lower court previously extended.
The Georgia Supreme Court’s order applies exclusively to absentee ballots from voters within Georgia who are affected by a Nov. 1 court order, and does not extend to military personnel, their families, or other U.S. citizens living abroad, who are eligible to vote under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
RNC Michael Whatley praised the ruling, calling it a “huge election integrity win.”
“Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. … Election Day is Election Day — not the week after. We will keep fighting, keep winning, and keep sharing updates,” Whatley wrote in a post on X.
The Georgia Supreme Court’s Nov. 4 decision stems from a complaint filed on Nov. 1 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of voters who requested emergency injunctive relief after the Cobb County Board of Elections failed to issue absentee ballots in a timely fashion for some 3,240 voters out of 510,490 registered voters.
The complaint states that under state law, voters can request absentee mail-in ballots up to 11 days before the election, with the deadline for requests being Oct. 25. However, on Oct. 31, the Cobb County Board of Elections announced that it had not yet sent out over 3,000 absentee ballots requested before this deadline.
The election board attributed delays in mailing absentee ballots to a “surge of last-minute applications” and stated it was working with postal and delivery services on express mailing to expedite ballot delivery and return.
Additionally, the board faced issues with its in-house equipment, which malfunctioned after the vendor’s final mailing run, according to Elections Director Tate Fall.
The plaintiffs sought emergency court intervention requiring extended acceptance of absentee ballots delayed by the election board, to prevent what they described as the disenfranchisement of over 3,000 voters.
In a statement following the Georgia Supreme Court’s Nov. 4 ruling that nullifies the extension, the ACLU said that the high court’s decision means that affected voters must vote in person on Election Day or return their ballots to the Cobb County Elections office by the Election Day deadline. If this isn’t feasible, affected voters should use overnight delivery to return their ballots, with mailing them only as a last resort, per the ACLU.
“Unfortunately, there are voters who will not be able to access the remaining options and will not have their voices heard in this election as a result of this ruling,” Lee said in a statement.
Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy in his now overturned Nov. 1 order had agreed with the plaintiffs, stating that the affected voters’ constitutional rights were violated when the election board “failed to timely send absentee ballots to approximately 3,240 voters.”
According to state law, absentee ballots can also be dropped in a drop box during operating hours before polls close on Election Day.
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