Last week, Republicans congratulated themselves on their YUUUGE court victory in Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign successfully filed for an injunction extending the deadline for people to cast their mail-in ballots in person — essentially a labor-intensive solution to Pennsylvania's ban on in-person early voting.
Churlish commentators (it's me!) noted that the GOP isn't typically in the habit of improving ballot access, and their entire claim is that the 2020 election was #RIGGED because the courts were in the middle of the game have changed the rules to accommodate COVID safety protocols. But don't worry! Trump and his henchmen have gotten back into shape and are now piling state and federal records with garbage lawsuits to prevent access to ballots.
The fun began Friday in Georgia, where regular Trump campaign lawyer Alex Kaufman requested emergency relief on behalf of the Fulton County Republican Party and the Georgia GOP. The petition (via Democracy Docket) alleged that county election officials illegally accepted hand-cast mail-in ballots over the weekend in violation of OCGA §21-2-385.
This makes perfect sense, except that the cited provision of the law applies only to ballot drop boxes and not to mail-in ballots that are hand-delivered to the registrar. In fact, the statute cited in this case states: “The voter must then personally mail or hand-deliver the documents to the registrar or absentee ballot officer.” That's exactly what Judge Kevin Farmer told Kaufman when he dismissed 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 14 additional pages complaining that hand-casting mail-in ballots in some counties but not others violates the Equal Protection Clause. He also 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, the election officials who represent the vast majority of the state's residents must also keep their doors closed. That's what the constitution says! (That is not the case.)
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger noted that the issue is not ambiguous from a state perspective.
Under state law, election officials can accept mail-in ballots in person at government facilities if the county chooses.
Several districts have decided to do so.
We are working with counties and political parties to ensure this is done transparently and within Georgia law.
— GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState) November 2, 2024
“Let me be clear: no election laws were broken in Georgia today,” his deputy, Gabriel Sterling, reiterated. “The law clearly states that government buildings can be used to receive mail-in ballots. That’s what a judge said this morning.”
This afternoon, the parties appeared for a hearing before U.S. District Judge R. Stan Baker. The defendants have until 9 a.m. tomorrow to file their answers to the motion for preliminary injunction/TRO. A hearing will follow at 12 p.m. Fulton County attorneys fought their hardest in court, declaring in advance that they did not believe Judge Baker had jurisdiction and refusing to voluntarily seize the ballots in question because Judge Farmer had already told them they were under Georgia law are not legally obliged to do so. Kaufman tried hard to persuade the court to order the district to do so anyway – effectively a temporary restraining order – 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 judge in the state of Georgia, should be disenfranchised .
Good to see the GOP is back to its old self!
RNC vs. Mahoney [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore, where she produces the Substack and podcast “Law and Chaos.”
