ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ordered that Cobb County may only count absentee ballots received by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The court sided with the Republican National Committee, removing the relief a lower court ordered that originally gave more than 3,000 voters — all of whom had received their ballots late — a few extra days to return their ballots.

Cobb County saw a surge in the number of absentee ballot requests before the deadline. The requests came in too late for the state’s approved printing vendor, so the county had to switch to using its own printing equipment. But those machines were not working and had to be fixed, which caused the delay, a Cobb County Board of Elections attorney previously said.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones announced the ruling to cheers from the crowd at JD Vance’s Cobb County rally.

“We’ve only had a month of early voting, I don’t know why that’s a big deal,” Jones said of Cobb’s push to extend the deadline.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center had initially filed the lawsuit in Cobb County Superior Court asking the court to extend the deadline.

In a statement, the ACLU said the affected voters should either vote in person or hand deliver the ballots to their county election offices as soon as possible. If neither is an option, the ACLU said, voters should immediately send their ballot back to the county via overnight delivery, and should only send their ballots via regular mail as a last resort.

“Unfortunately, there are voters who will not be able to access the remaining options and will not have their voices heard in this election as a result of this ruling,” the ACLU said.

The state Supreme Court also ordered the ballots that come in late to be secured, and not destroyed, until further order. The ballots must be returned by 7 p.m. on Election Day to comply with state law. Under the previous order by Senior Judge Robert E. Flournoy III, the ballots would have to be received by 5 p.m. Nov. 8 but postmarked by Election Day.

County officials said they were taking “extraordinary measures” to ensure voters receive the ballots, and they scrambled to ship the outstanding ballots through express and overnight mail. On Monday, the Cobb County Board of Elections said it will comply with the Georgia Supreme Court’s order but will wait to see the final ruling.

“We will anticipate the Supreme Court’s final ruling to see whether it ultimately allow these voters additional time to return their ballots or whether we must only count those received by the close of polls on Tuesday,” said Tori Silas, chairwoman of the Board of Elections and Registration.

Will Spillman, a Cobb County resident who is attending law school in Washington, D.C., said he was one of the absentee voters who received his ballot. He received an email from the county confirming it had overnighted his ballot on Oct. 29, but he says he didn’t receive it until Monday at 11 a.m.

Now he’s worried his vote may not arrive in time.

“It definitely is confusing. I hope it gets counted,” he said. “Considering the fact that the overnight sending of my ballot took multiple days, yes, I’m pretty concerned.”

_____

(Greg Bluestein contributed to this report.)

_____

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.