COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Supreme Court halted a ruling that allowed Cobb County to have an extension for its absentee ballots to be turned in, according to a court filing.
The new decisions comes after a Cobb County Superior Court Judge signed an order allowing Cobb Elections to count the affected absentee ballots received by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, as long as they are postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5. The extension applied to absentee ballots mailed after Wednesday, Oct. 30.
However, the Republican National Convention then filed an emergency motion with the state Supreme Court in an effort to halt the lower court's ruling. This led Georgia's highest court to approve the motion for a stay Monday afternoon, where they issued an order that the county elections office can only count absentee ballots received by Nov. 5 at 7p.m. on Election Day.
This immediately nulls the previous extension, meaning all Cobb County voters affected must now vote in person or get their absentee ballots to the election office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The address is 995 Roswell St. NE, Marietta, Georgia.
The order also mandates that Cobb Elections keeps all absentee ballots from those that arrive after the deadline in a "secure, safe and sealed container, separate from other ballots," pending further court rulings.
Board of Elections and Registration Chairwoman Tori Silas said they are aware of this change and will comply with the Georgia Supreme Court's order.
"However, because the order only addressed to the motion for a stay, 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," Silas said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said because of the ruling, they are urging all voters to prioritize voting in person on Tuesday if at all possible. If they cannot vote in person, they should hand deliver the ballot to the county elections office as soon as possible. If that is not an option, they urge voters to send their ballot back to the county through overnight delivery.
"Only as a last resort should voters simply mail their ballots," the SPLC said. "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."
All of this comes after election officials were working to express ship absentee ballots to voters last week after more than 3,000 ballots requested had not been mailed.
Silas previously said the board wanted to maintain voter trust by being transparent about the situation.
"We are taking every possible step to get these ballots to the voters who requested them. Unfortunately, we were unprepared for the surge in requests and lacked the necessary equipment to process the ballots quickly," Silas said last week. "I think it’s just indicative of the historic nature of this particular election and all of the interest in this election."
According to a release, Cobb Elections had contracted with a state-approved vendor to print and ship the absentee ballots. Elections Director Tate Fall said equipment issues prompted these delays.
“After our vendor’s final run on Friday, we needed to utilize our in-house equipment for the final shipment of ballots, but the equipment was not working properly," Fall said. "By the time we got the equipment online, the deadline for mailing the ballots had passed, prompting us to work with the US Postal Service and UPS to take extraordinary measures. Our team has been working around the clock to get the ballots out."