A U.S. District Court judge is considering an injunction to stop Georgia state election officials from tossing out absentee ballots without notifying voters that the information needs correcting.
Judge Leigh Martin May is considering filing an injunction on Thursday — less than 2 weeks before the midterm elections.
According to the AJC.com, the injunction could complicate the work of election officials statewide, who will be required to send out hundreds of thousands of notices to voters who sent in absentee ballots.
Two civil rights groups are declaring victory after filing lawsuits against the state.
“We are pleased that the court has enforced the due process guarantees of the U.S. Constitution,” said Sean Young, legal director of Georgia’s brand of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Today’s ruling is a victory for democracy and for every absentee voter in the state of Georgia.”
Young’s lawsuit was one of two filed against the state accusing Secretary of State Brian Kemp of suppressing voter rolls and tossing out absentee ballots that contained errors.
Supporters of Democrat Stacey Abrams, left, who faces Kemp, right, in the race for governor, accused the secretary of state of using his position to steal the election by purging voter rolls of over 300,000 voter registrations.
Abrams and Republican Kemp met on Tuesday for the first of two debates in Midtown Atlanta. Their next debate is scheduled for Nov. 4.
The judge’s injunction would order Kemp and his office to tell local elections officials to make every effort to count legitimate mail-in-votes.
Kemp must tell election officials they “shall not reject any absentee ballots due to an alleged signature mismatch.” Instead, ballots should be marked provisional and would-be voters given “pre-rejection notice and an opportunity to resolve the alleged signature discrepancy.”
Voters whose ballots are rejected will have the right to appeal.
Abrams made headlines this week when an old newspaper photo surfaced that showed her burning the Georgia state flag in 1992 when she was an 18-year-old student at Spelman College.
Photos by John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images
