Federal judge declines to halt parts of Georgia’s new election law – for now

A federal judge Wednesday denied a push to stop the enforcement of some new Georgia election rules for Tuesday’s two state House runoffs but is leaving open the possibility he could block parts of the law from taking effect in future elections.

In Wednesday’s order, U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Boulee said he didn’t want to make “ninth inning” changes governing absentee ballot request deadlines and elections observation with early voting underway for the special election runoffs. 

Boulee wrote in his initial order he is still considering the merits of the arguments in the Coalition for Good Governance’s lawsuit against the state officials, which could hold ramifications for this fall’s municipal elections when many more Georgians will cast ballots.

“Plaintiffs’ response that state defendants are ill-prepared to administer the new rules does not change the fact that election administrators have prepared to implement the challenged rules, have implemented them at least to some extent and now would have to grapple with a different set of rules in the middle of the election,” Boulee wrote in his order.

“The Court reserves judgment regarding the propriety of relief as to future elections and will issue a separate order on this question at a later date,” he added.

The Coalition’s lawsuit argues that Georgia voters will be shortchanged by the new law’s shortening of the deadline to request absentee ballots by a week, cutting off access 11 days before an election. That new rule took effect on July 1.

The lawsuit also claims the state is violating the rights of the media, election monitors, and members of the public with restrictions on routine observation at polling places and places where votes are counted.  

The lawsuit is one of eight challenging Georgia’s Senate Bill 202, a sweeping election measure that Republican lawmakers pushed through at the end of this year’s legislative session. 

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, one of the defendants in the coalition’s suit, said following Boulee’s order that he remains confident that the outcome will favor the state. 

“This is just another in the line of frivolous lawsuits against Georgia’s election law based on misinformation and lies,” Raffensperger said in a statement.

Boulee’s ruling Wednesday means election officials will move ahead as planned using the new election rules to process ballots cast in the Cobb County House district vacated by Republican Rep. Bert Reeves, who resigned after accepting a position at Georgia Tech. 

In that race, Republican Devan Seabaugh will battle Democrat Priscilla Smith.

In the other House runoff, two Republicans – Leesa Hagan and Wally Sapp – are vying to fill the south Georgia seat vacated by state Rep. Greg Morris, who now serves on the State Transportation Board.