"A judge ruled that Georgia law allows Saturday voting before the runoff for U.S. Senate, finding that polling places can open even though they follow state holidays on Thanksgiving and the day afterward that years ago honored Robert E. Lee’s birthday.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox decided Friday that state law permits counties to offer voting Nov. 26, finding in favor of Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign.
County governments may now choose to offer residents an opportunity to vote on that Saturday in addition to five mandatory weekdays of early voting the following week.
The judge’s order reversed Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s interpretation that state law barred Saturday voting before the Dec. 6 runoff between Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
Cox sided with the plaintiffs, who argued in court Friday that a law barring Saturday voting after holidays only applies to regularly scheduled elections — not Georgia’s quick runoff election that leaves limited early voting days. Raffensperger’s office said it will appeal the ruling.
“Eliminating that day of weekend voting reduces voting opportunities,” said Uzoma Nkwonta, an attorney for the Warnock campaign, the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “The court does not need to find that voting opportunities have been eliminated entirely to demonstrate that there’s been an impairment or infringement or burden on the right to vote"
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