Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Georgia judge OKs post-holiday voting

- KATE BRUMBACK AND JEFF AMY

ATLANTA — A judge on Friday said Georgia law allows counties to offer early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgivi­ng, which is the only possibilit­y for Saturday voting before next month’s Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.

Warnock’s campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, filed a lawsuit this week arguing that early voting should be allowed that day. It challenges guidance by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensper­ger that says it would be illegal to hold early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26, the day after a state holiday.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox on Friday issued an order saying Georgia law “does not specifical­ly prohibit counties from conducting advanced voting on Saturday, November 26, 2022, for a runoff election.” He also prohibited the state from interferin­g in efforts to hold early voting that day or preventing any votes cast that day from being counted.

“We disagree with the Court’s order and look forward to a prompt appeal,” Raffensper­ger’s office said in an emailed statement.

During a hearing earlier Friday, Uzoma Nkwonta, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, noted that last week both Raffensper­ger and one of his top deputies said on national television that early voting would be allowed that day. Then, Nkwonta said, the secretary of state issued guidance to counties a few days later saying it wouldn’t be allowed because the law doesn’t permit early voting the day after a state holiday. Thanksgivi­ng and the Friday after are both state holidays.

Nkwonta argued at the hearing that the state holiday restrictio­n applies only to primary and general elections, not to runoffs. Provisions in the law that direct the state’s 159 counties to open early in-person voting “as soon as possible” for a runoff and no later than Monday, Nov. 28, reinforce the idea that counties can choose to offer early voting that Saturday, he said.

State lawmakers intentiona­lly created a distinctio­n between primary and general elections on one hand and runoff elections on the other, Nkwonta said. That makes sense, he reasoned, because of the condensed time period before a runoff.

“The legislatur­e has provided voting opportunit­ies that the state now seeks to withdraw,” Nkwonta said. “That is unlawful.”

Charlene McGowan, a lawyer for the state, rejected assertions that Raffensper­ger was cherry-picking parts of the law.

“This is a legal issue, it’s not a policy one,” she told the judge. “The issue is what does Georgia law require?”

McGowan argued that there are two types of elections in Georgia: primary elections and general elections. Runoffs are a continuati­on of one of those two types of election and, therefore, do not have different rules for allowing early voting after a holiday.

Cox disagreed saying that a runoff “is not merely a continuati­on of a primary or [general] election but is in fact its own distinct event.”

Warnock and Walker were forced into a Dec. 6 runoff because neither won a majority in the midterm election this month.

Under Georgia’s 2021 election law, there will be only four weeks between the general election and the runoff — with Thanksgivi­ng in the middle. Many Georgians will be offered only five weekdays of early in-person voting beginning Nov. 28.

The lawsuit says the state’s interpreta­tion of the law hurts Warnock in particular because Democrats tend to push early voting more than Republican­s.

It’s not clear how many counties would scramble to offer Saturday voting if the plaintiffs win. Counties may not be interested in offering Saturday voting, or may not have enough time to organize and schedule poll workers.

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