Civil rights groups want Georgia to extend its voter registration deadline because of Hurricane Helene

ATLANTA — A federal judge Wednesday was skeptical of a request to extend Georgia’s voter registration deadline to Monday because of power outages and damage caused by Hurricane Helene.

The deadline to register for the Nov. 5 general election was this past Monday. But three civil rights groups — the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the New Georgia Project — filed a lawsuit seeking an extension because of the hurricane.

At a hearing Wednesday in Atlanta, U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross rejected their request to order Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to extend the registration deadline. She expressed skepticism that the groups had standing to bring the lawsuit or that they had demonstrated voters were harmed by sticking to the original deadline. But Ross scheduled a hearing for Thursday to hear testimony and more arguments before deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction requiring the extension.

Hurricane Helene dropped more than 11 inches of rain on Georgia when it hit two weeks ago. It caused widespread flooding and power outages, and at least 33 people died in the state.

The civil rights groups argued that power and internet outages, road closures, government shutdowns and the general devastation wrought by the hurricane likely prevented tens of thousands of people from registering to vote in the days before the deadline. The groups said they closed offices and canceled planned voter registration events.

The groups sued Kemp and Raffensperger to extend the deadline. On Wednesday, attorneys for the state argued the extension would burden already harried election workers, who are preparing for early voting to begin Tuesday. The Georgia Republican Party also argued Georgia should stick with the original deadline.