ATLANTA — National and state Republicans filed a federal lawsuit to challenge several counties that opened elections offices over the weekend to accept hand-returned absentee ballots, in the wake of a judge rejecting a similar lawsuit in state court.
Republican state officials, including Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and the chief operating officer in the Secretary of State's Office, Gabriel Sterling, also said the practice was lawful. And the Associated Press reported it has long been the practice for Georgia election offices to accept mail ballots over the counter.
The opening of elections offices in some counties after Friday's end of the early voting period to accept absentee ballots in person -- with about 90,000 absentee ballots that were requested and issued still outstanding, according to state data -- became a political flashpoint over the weekend.
RELATED: Georgia judge rejects GOP lawsuit trying to block counties from accepting hand-returned mail ballots
It's not clear how many counties statewide may have opened offices, but the Republican lawsuit targets several Democratic-leaning metro Atlanta counties (Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton, though Clayton did not open its offices over the weekend) as well as Democratic-leaning Clarke County (home to Athens) and Chatham County (Savannah).
State GOP Chairman Josh McKoon argued it was "unacceptable that the decision was made to open these locations without notice or authorization from any party charged with elections administration."
"Under state law, election officials can receive absentee ballots in person at govt facilities if the county chooses," Sec. Raffensperger wrote on X. "Several counties have chosen to do this."
"The law clearly states that govt buildings can be used to receive absentee ballots," Sterling added on X, also noting, "OCGA 21-2-382(a) allows counties to 'establish additional registrar's offices... provided that such site is a government building.'"
The Associated Press reported a Fulton County Superior Court judge, Kevin Farmer, ruled Saturday in the state lawsuit -- which targeted only Fulton County -- that "it is not a violation... for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots."
The lawsuit alleges the counties violated state and federal law, in particular arguing that as a result of accepting ballots in person, early voting is functionally "continuing past the November 1, 2024 statutory deadline." It also argues the practice violates the Constitution's 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause by "granting special privileges to voters of those counties in violation of state law, thus arbitrarily and disparately affecting against voters and candidates in other counties."
The full lawsuit is available at the bottom of this story. It seeks an injunction against the counties that accepted the ballots as well as an order requiring those counties "to segregate ballots" returned over the weekend. It's not clear what would be done with the segregated ballots if such an order were granted.
In a separate point of contention Saturday, McKoon and other Republicans objected after a Fulton County election official sent an email to elections workers saying that observers would not be allowed to sit inside election offices while ballots were turned in.
Fulton County elections director Nadine Williams said during a weekend hearing before Judge Farmer that these were county offices and not polling places, and thus partisan poll watchers have never been allowed to observe those spaces.
But hours later, Williams sent out an email clarifying that the process should be open to the public and no credentials or badges were needed. She noted that members of the independent monitoring team that is observing Fulton County's election processes were also on site and that investigators from the Secretary of State's Office might also be present.