Georgia judge says voters can hand in mail ballots in rejection of GOP lawsuit

A judge in Georgia on Saturday dismissed a Republican lawsuit that sought to block voters from hand-returning mail-in ballots in the state over the weekend. 

The lawsuit centered around officials in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, opening normally closed country offices on Saturday and Sunday to allow voters to hand in their ballots. 

Five other Democratic-leaning counties in the state also announced that county offices would be open over the weekend. 

Early voting in Georgia ended on Friday and the lawsuit, filed Friday night, cited a section of state law that says ballot drop boxes cannot be open past the end of advance voting. 

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A worker at the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections works to process absentee ballots at the State Farm Arena, Saturday, in Atlanta.  (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

But state law also states that voters can hand in mail ballots until the polls close on Tuesday night. 

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GOP lawyer Alex Kaufman argued in a Saturday emergency hearing that while it’s OK to mail absentee ballots, they shouldn’t be hand-delivered after early voting ends, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer rejected all of his arguments. 

Vice President Kamala Harris holds a rally in Savannah, Georgia, in August.  ( Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Former President Trump in Savannah, Georgia, in September.  ( Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,” Farmer said.

A Fulton County spokesperson said on Saturday afternoon that only a couple dozen ballots had been returned to the four open county offices. 

An early voting center in Atlanta.  (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

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Former President Trump narrowly lost Georgia, a usually reliably Republican state, to President Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020, and afterward Trump made unsubstantiated accusations of fraud in Fulton County.

Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been actively campaigning in the state, now considered a battleground. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.