Judge: Georgia to extend runoff voter registration

ATLANTA — A federal judge on Thursday ordered Georgia officials to reopen voter registration in a suburban Atlanta congressional district ahead of a heated special election that’s seen by many as a test of President Donald Trump’s influence.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten ruled in favor of civil rights advocacy groups who argued that Georgia violated federal law by preventing more new voter registrations before the June 20 runoff.

Georgia had set the registration deadline on March 20, 30 days before the first round of voting in April. Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel, the top two vote-getters, advanced to a runoff in the conservative 6th District. Democrats hope Ossoff, who came within 2 percentage points of outright victory in the first round, can upset Handel in the tight race.

Trump raised funds for Handel in a recent Atlanta visit.

Batten, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush in 2005, ordered the state to extend the deadline to May 21 and to allow any district resident registered by that day to cast a ballot in the runoff. He said he wouldn’t order the state to publicize the change but that he ex- pects the Secretary of State, Georgia’s top elections official, to update his website with the new information.

Candice Broce, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brian Kemp, said the state will comply with the judge’s order.

Batten said in court that his Thursday order only applies to the June runoff and not to future elections.

Jill Boyd Myers, one of the people on whose behalf the lawsuit was filed, moved from Atlanta to suburban Sandy Springs in the 6th District two days after the March 20 registration cutoff. Despite having been registered to vote in Georgia since she moved here from Ohio in 2011, she was upset to learn she wouldn’t be eligible to vote in the runoff.

“This just felt like a real prohibition of our rights as citizens,” she said after the hearing, adding that she was thrilled with the judge’s ruling.

Attorneys for the state argued that federal law allows states to determine voters’ qualifications, including registration deadlines. The state constitution defines a runoff election as a “continuation of the general election,” and allows only those eligible to vote in the initial election to cast a ballot in the runoff, attorneys wrote in court documents laying out the state’s argument.

“It’s one contest with one electorate,” state attorney Josiah Heidt told the judge.