A Georgia judge has extended the deadline for voters in a suburban Atlanta county to return absentee ballots because election officials failed to mail them.
According to the Associated Press, Cobb County election officials acknowledged Friday that the county had failed to mail more than 1,000 absentee ballot requests to voters. Some of the voters filed a lawsuit on Sunday asking for the extension. According to the lawsuit, ballots were never made or sent on two days last month due to staff error.
“We know it wasn’t the voters’ fault. We know it wasn’t the post office’s fault,” said Daniel White, an attorney for the elections office, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). “This was an administrative error.”
Due to the error, 1,036 voters have yet to receive the requested ballots. According to state election data, 250 had voted in person during early voting. However, the lawsuit claimed that without intervention from the court, many of those whose ballots weren’t sent might be unable to vote.
Election officials complied with the lawsuit’s demands that voters be contacted and sent an absentee ballot by overnight mail and that the deadline for returning ballots is extended. Officials are required to send out ballots within three days of receiving a request during the three weeks of early voting that come before Election Day. On election day, voters have until 7 p.m. to turn in their ballots.
According to the AJC, Cobb County Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill was going to sign a consent decree on Monday afternoon allowing the county to accept ballots even if they arrive after Election Day if they are postmarked by that date.
The attorney for the election officials said the county will certify election results on Nov. 15 and the extended deadline will “allow our office to accept as many ballots as possible up to the day of certification.”
Georgia is a battleground state with a fiercely contested race for governor between incumbent Brian Kemp and Democratic hopeful Stacey Abrams and a Senate race between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, which could determine what party controls the closely divided chamber.