A lawsuit was filed on Sunday by the ACLU of Georgia, ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Dechert LLP that seeks emergency relief for hundreds of Cobb County absentee voters to have enough time to cast their votes, according to officials.
Officials say the lawsuit “seeks to send ballots overnight to hundreds of voters who still need their absentee ballots and move the deadline from 7 p.m. on Election Day to Nov. 14.
“There is a direct correlation between the state’s sweeping anti-voter law, S.B. 202, and Cobb County’s failure to get over a thousand registered voters their absentee ballots,” said Rahul Garabadu, the ACLU of Georgia’s senior voting rights attorney. “The anti-voter law put tremendous pressure on elections officials to accomplish a number of responsibilities under a very tight deadline, and in Cobb County, that pressure has resulted in a huge error and hundreds of voters at risk of being disenfranchised.”
Cobb County voters are reacting to more than 1,000 absentee ballots not being mailed.
According to Tomika, election officials told her they never received her request but immediately sent a ballot.
She now worries about those who may not have realized their absentee ballot never came.
According to Cobb County, 1,046 requested absentee ballots were never mailed.
They said out of that number, 498 residents were identified and urged to vote.
Elections and Registrations Director Janine Eveler attributed the situation to human error, with new staff not following procedures on two days to ensure ballots were mailed.
“I am sorry that this office let these voters down,” Eveler said in a message to the Board of Elections and Registration. “Many of the absentee staff have been averaging 80 or more hours per week, and they are exhausted. Still, that is no excuse for such a critical error.”
“We are suing to make sure all Cobb County voters are able to have their voices heard, and we look forward to the day when the state partners with counties to make voting easier, not harder, for all Georgians,” said Garabadu.
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