Georgia court allows counties to offer early voting after Thanksgiving

A Georgia appeals court said it was leaving in place a ruling allowing counties to offer early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. Senate runoff election.

Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock sued after state officials said early voting couldn’t take place Nov. 26 because state law prohibited voting on Saturday after a holiday on Thursday or Friday. previous Friday.

Mr Warnock, the state Democratic Party and the Senate Democrats campaign arm said the law did not apply to runoff elections.

The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox that allowed voting to begin on Saturday.

“The Court finds that the absence of Saturday’s vote will cause irreparable harm to the plaintiffs, their members and constituents, and their preferred run-off candidate,” Justice Cox wrote.

Early voting will be offered statewide from Nov. 28 through Dec. 2, but counties may offer additional days.

Mr Warnock is trying to hold on to his seat against Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a former football star backed by former President Donald Trump. Neither candidate won a majority of votes on election day, so they are heading for a runoff on December 6.

Democrats will have control of the Senate in a 50-50 split – with Vice President Kamala Harris as the deciding vote – even if Mr Walker wins, although Democrats want to beef up their majority with a 51st seat.

A spokesman for Georgian Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the court has ruled on the Warnock lawsuit, but he would like the state legislature to clarify the issue to avoid confusion in the future.