GA Secretary of State, County Election Boards Hit with Class Action Over ‘Wholly Inadequate’ Provisional Ballot Window

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The Democratic Party of Georgia and AFG Group, Inc. have filed a proposed class action lawsuit wherein they argue that the three-day cure period in which counties can verify provisional ballots after Election Day is “wholly inadequate” to ensure voters’ constitutional rights are upheld.

The complaint—filed against Georgia Secretary of State Robyn A. Crittenden, five members of the Gwinnett County Board of Registration and Elections and five members of Dekalb County’s Board of Registration and Elections—alleges that the state’s three-day provisional ballot-counting window and the “confusion and disarray” it’s caused across multiple counties has the potential effect of disenfranchising residents whose ballots simply could not be addressed in time. Many voters, according to the suit, have been turned away by the defendants and boards of registrars or informed they’ll be “added to a list” to be called when a decision is eventually made—well past the end of the cure period.

With election day having fallen this year on November 6, the three-day provisional ballot cure window closed on November 9, the case notes, though apparently, no state law mandates election results be certified until seven days later. From the suit:

“There is no reason it needs to be this way. Counties are not required by statute to certify election results until November 13, 2018. … The Secretary of State is not required to certify results until November 20, 2018.”

The plaintiffs ask the court for declaratory and injunctive relief requiring the acceptance of absentee ballots of “at least 1,095 qualified electors who properly submitted absentee ballots” prior to the November 6 election and had their ballots “arbitrarily and unlawfully rejected” under the guise of “missing or insufficient information.” Further, the plaintiffs seek a court order and judgment requiring Georgia counties to accept cures for and verify provisional ballots until November 14, among other instructions to ensure counties toe the line in enforcing voters’ rights.