COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A consent order issued by a judge on Monday will allow certain voters who never received their absentee ballot in Cobb County to have their votes counted, even if they arrive after Election Day.
According to Georgia election law, absentee vote-by-mail ballots must be received by the time polls close on Election Day. This consent order will change that for the more than 1,000 Cobb County voters who never received their ballots.
"For the other three elections I voted in, I didn’t have problems with absentee voting except for this one," said Trent Schorsch, a Cobb voter who is a full-time student at a college in Indiana. "I don’t have a lot of time to devote to looking into going about getting my ballot. From my standpoint, it’s a big letdown."
For voters who didn't receive their ballots, simply having their ballot postmarked and out in the mail by Nov. 8 will be sufficient, so long as it does arrive by Nov. 14 - which is the day before counties must certify their election results for the state. The ballots can also be dropped off at the county's election office Tuesday.
After announcing over the weekend that the ballots were never mailed as a result of "human error," Cobb said it was overnighting ballots to 83 out-of-state voters, with included pre-paid overnight return postage, and had already overnighted 194 ballots to out-of-state voters.
County officials said the extended receipt date will apply to all 1,036 voters who were affected; some voters had already requested replacement ballots or went to vote early after not receiving their ballot the first time around. The consent order said more ballots would be overnighted Monday with a prepaid return envelope to those who hadn't received a replacement yet.
"It's an imperfect solution to a problem that has come up at the 11th hour," Rahul Garabadu, of the ACLU of Georgia said.
After the announcement about the unmailed ballots, the ACLU announced it was filing a lawsuit to obtain the Nov. 14 deadline for the voters.
Cobb elections director Janine Eveler said 38 percent of her staff is new this year and one person caused the problem with the absentee ballots. However, Eveler said the person won't be disciplined until after the election.
"We're so sorry to these voters," Eveler said. "The employee responsible is sick about it. She's in tears all the time."
The Secretary of State's Office is looking into the matter further.
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