ATLANTA — A federal judge has denied a motion by a voting rights group to invalidate parts of Georgia’s new election law.
In May, the Coalition for Good Governance filed the lawsuit against Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the State Election Board to stop enforcement parts of the newly-passed voting law including: The “Observation Rule,” the “Observation Rule,” the “Communication Rule,” the “Tally Rule,” the “Ballot Application Rule.”
“Liberty requires at least three essential things—an unfettered right to vote, freedom of speech, and the meaningful separation of powers. This lawsuit is necessary to preserve individual constitutional rights, and constitutional government, against the attacks that SB202 makes on these three pillars of liberty,” the group said.
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Judge J.P. Boulee released his ruling Wednesday afternoon, saying in part that the proposed injunction would change administration rules for elections that are already underway.
There is a special election runoff for Georgia House District 34 and District 156.
“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.
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The Secretary of State’s office sent a statement about today’s motion.
“This is just another in the line of frivolous lawsuits against Georgia’s election law based on misinformation and lies. We will continue to meet them and beat them in court.”
In June, the Justice Department sued Georgia, alleging Republican state lawmakers rushed through a sweeping overhaul with an intent to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot.
“Where we believe the civil rights of Americans have been violated, we will not hesitate to act,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday in announcing the lawsuit.
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