The Southern Poverty Law Center and civil rights groups filed an emergency lawsuit after Cobb County, Georgia, election officials failed to send out more than 3,000 absentee ballots to voters ahead of a Nov. 5, 2024, deadline to return their ballots by mail.
The emergency complaint by the SPLC, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the Cobb County elections director and the County Board of Elections and Registration members for jeopardizing voters’ constitutional right to vote by putting them at serious risk of being unable to cast their ballots by mail under the Nov. 5, 2024, deadline.
On Nov. 1, 2024, the Cobb County Superior Court ordered the county to remedy the delay by sending voters’ ballots by overnight mail, requiring that ballots postmarked by Election Day and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2024, be counted to protect voters’ constitutional right to vote. Georgia state law requires absentee ballots be mailed within three days after applications are processed. Cobb County officials failed to meet this obligation.
The Georgia Supreme Court stayed that ruling, removing the relief that the lower court had ordered, after the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Georgia Republican Party filed an appeal on Nov. 4, 2024.
On Nov. 6, 2024, the RNC and Georgia Republican Party moved to dismiss their appeal, but the SPLC and co-counsel held that regardless of the election results, affected Cobb County voters’ constitutional rights would still be violated without an extension of the absentee receipt deadline.
As a result, the Georgia Supreme Court dismissed the appeal and dissolved its earlier order that had put a hold on the counting of these voters’ ballots. This allowed for affected voters’ ballots postmarked by 7 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2024, and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2024, to be counted in accordance with the initial lower court order.
