Georgia supreme court rejects GOP effort to prevent Saturday voting in senate runoff

Update:

The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously rejected the Republican Party’s attempt to block early voting this Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP candidate Herschel Walker.

Earlier:

Republican groups filed an appeal with the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to block early voting this Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP candidate Herschel Walker.

The Georgia Republican Party, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and the Republican National Committee asked Georgia’s high court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that said state law permits early voting this Saturday, 10 days before the December 6 runoff.

As The Associated Press reported, “The time-sensitive legal battle began after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued guidance to county election officials that said early voting could not be held on November 26 because state law says it is illegal on a Saturday if there is a holiday on the Thursday or Friday preceding it.”

Thursday is Thanksgiving and Friday is a state holiday that was originally created to honor Robert E. Lee, the general of the Confederate army that fought to preserve slavery.

The Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Warnock campaign sued last week to challenge Raffensperger’s guidance, arguing that the prohibition on Saturday early voting after a holiday applies only to primary or general elections, not runoffs.

A Fulton County judge agreed, issuing an order on Friday that sided with the Warnock campaign and the Democratic groups.

Lawyers for the state challenged the lower court’s decision, but the Georgia Court of Appeals issued a single-sentence ruling late Monday that rejected their request for an immediate reversal.

Raffensperger accepted that ruling and said the state would not launch additional appeals.

“The court has worked its will,” Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office, said in a statement. “We believe this is something the General Assembly should consider clarifying to avoid confusion in the future.”

The Republican groups, however, appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The Warnock campaign and the Democratic groups expressed their opposition to the GOP’s petition in a filing submitted to the state supreme court on Wednesday morning.

Georgia compressed the time frame for runoff campaigns as part of a 2021 voter suppression law condemned by Democrats and voting rights advocates.

“The shortened calendar, less than a month from the general election, makes the early-voting period coincide with Thanksgiving,” HuffPost noted. “Georgia law requires that counties hold five days of early voting from Monday, November 28, through Friday, December 2. But counties can also hold three additional days of early voting, and some counties want to offer early voting on Saturday, when many voters are off work.”

Warnock and Walker, an ex-football star who has support of Donald Trump, are going to face off in the December 6 runoff after neither candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the November 8 midterms.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.