Federal Judge Refuses to Block Georgia Election Law Ahead of Upcoming Runoffs

A federal judge declined to block Georgia's new election law Wednesday before next week's runoff elections, but he left open the possibility of doing so for future elections.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee ruled that making changes to the law prior to the special elections on July 13 could risk "Disrupting the administration of an ongoing election," The Associated Press reported.

Liberal activists had sought to keep the state from enforcing sections of the new election law that dealt with observations of elections and deadlines for requesting absentee ballots.

The request is just one of eight federal lawsuits challenging the election law.

The challenged provisions of the election law were not the most commonly criticized since the law was enacted earlier this year.

The Coalition for Good Governance led the group of activists and said the provisions "Criminalize normal election observation activities and could intimidate, voters, election observers and members of the news media," according to the AP. It also argued that the new absentee ballot request deadline of 11 days before an election made it hard to ensure an absentee ballot would be received prior to the certification of the election.

"We're concerned about the voter confusion that will no doubt occur with these little-known rapid changes to the rules," she said, according to the AP. However, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the challenge is "Just another in a line of frivolous lawsuits" against the Georgia election law.

https://thefederalistpapers.org/us/federal-judge-refuses-block-georgia-election-law-ahead-upcoming-runoffs