Georgia appeals ruling on Saturday early voting for runoff

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By KATE BRUMBACK an hour ago

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia is appealing a judge’s ruling that allows counties to offer early voting this coming Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.

Warnock’s campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, sued the state last week, arguing that early voting should be allowed that day. They were challenging guidance from Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that said state law doesn’t allow voting this Saturday because it’s the day after a state holiday.

That day is the only possibility for Saturday voting before next month’s Senate runoff election between Warnock and Walker. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday is a state holiday.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox on Friday issued an order siding with the Warnock campaign and the Democratic groups. Lawyers for the state on Monday filed a notice of appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals.



Judge Thomas A. Cox. Jr. listens to a plaintiff in a Fulton County Courthouse on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, in Atlanta. A lawsuit was filed by the Democratic Party of Georgia, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Warnock campaign that challenges guidance by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, saying that it would be illegal to hold early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26, the day after a state holiday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-herschel-walker-georgia-af163db41a5c4075310f2f00921611b5

[Walleye]

1. When we were kids we called this making up the rules as you go along

[SlimJimmy]

10. In this case, the "rule" is a state law.

I don't see the reasoning behind the law, but I would expect an appeal would be denied.

[SheltieLover]

2. Shocking! 😱

[MissMillie]

3. because it's "the day after a state holiday."??????????

So what.

They'll do ANYTHING to suppress the vote.

[NoRethugFriends]

5. And a state holiday celebrating an insurrectionist. (Robert E Lee)

[MissMillie]

6. I really don't care what the state holiday celebrates

well, not in this context.

There's no reason there shouldn't be business as usual on the DAY AFTER any state holiday.

[slumcamper]

7. Exactly. This is the weakest sauce EVER.

It strains credulity to conceive of any valid reason that a law would bar voting the day after a state holiday. I can't think of a rationale.

One can only conclude that this is suppression. And of course, its adverse effect falls disproportionately on the working poor who are living on the edge while tied to wage labor.

I'd need a complete legal team to learn about this law, its origins and expressed intent, and the substance of the actual debate and vote surrounding it, and how this ridiculous "law" withstood judicial scrutiny underneath the former Voting Rights Act.

Absurdity.

[chriscan64]

8. Raise your hand if you have to work on Dec. 26th.

The thinness of "thinly veiled" can't get any thinner. We can see Jim Crow through the sheets.

[Igel]

11. Or this Friday.

Or the day after New Year's.

Hey--"Here's a 4-day weekend when family gathers. But at 6:30 am on day 3 you have to be at this place for 1/4 of minimum wage! And be there 14 hours!" I'd have said, "No, I'm not a poll worker this time round." Which is why the law was in place--to have sympathy for the poll workers and election workers and not screw over labor when given a 3- or 4-day weekend. But far be it from me to worry about workers when there's a principle, a cause, in play. We all have sacrifices to make ... sometimes it's our money, sometimes it's others.)

The law was sloppily written--seriously, in hindsight they pretty much all are. The legislative history, from what I've seen, expresses valid and legitimate concern for labor on the one hand and the need to actually get front-line poll-workers to work the polls. I have to assume that in the ambiguity that the law seems to have, that valid and legitimate concern for labor and BOE needs would have continued to be expressed in the law. Or a justification for disregarding labor and concerns over BOE precinct staffing would have been expressed when exempting Saturday voting in run-offs from the general rule.

[Initech]

4. Fucking morons!

[lark]

9. Of course GA would appeal any sane ruling.