Georgia Supreme Court: Late Ballots Must be Set Aside

On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a ruling declaring that at least 3,000 absentee ballots that arrived late must be set aside and not counted right away on Election Day.

As the Washington Examiner reports, the ruling is yet another victory for the Republican National Committee (RNC) in its efforts to combat voter fraud. A lower court judge had ruled against the RNC and determined that the deadline for counting late ballots in Cobb County would be extended to November 8th, before the state Supreme Court’s ruling overrode that decision.

“HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia,” said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley in a statement on X. “Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court.”

As a result of the state court’s ruling, the 3,000 “Affected Voters” ballots will be set aside and not counted, unless the decision is appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The state court noted in its ruling that the order “does not pertain to voters entitled to vote under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act,” which mostly includes members of the military and overseas voters.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office issued a statement declaring that “all ballots postmarked by the date of the primary, election, or runoff will be counted if received within three days of Election Day.”

Georgia is considered one of the 7 key swing states in the election, and is a must-win state for former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee. The final polling averages in the state give the former president a slight edge over Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the Democratic nominee.