Judge Rewrites Georgia Law to Favor Warnock

If the new game is early voting and mail in ballots, why hasn’t the GOP mastered that game yet? Republicans will lose so long as we keep acting like losers.

And as long as the Democrats are in charge of the count, we are destined for darkness.

The Georgia Supreme Court sided with Georgia Democrats and ruled in favor of allowing early voting for the U.S. Senate runoff election to happen today.

The state supreme court denied the Georgia Republican Party’s request to prohibit early voting on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) argued that the state’s voting law prohibited in-person early voting from happening on a Saturday if it came after a holiday.

Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) campaign attorneys, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee, filed a lawsuit after Raffensperger signaled he would not allow early voting to occur on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Judge Rewrites Georgia Law to Favor Warnock

The Spectator, November 2022:

In Georgia, candidates for statewide office must win 50 percent of the vote — plus one — to be declared the winner. Warnock spent a record-breaking $75.9 million yet garnered only 49.4 percent. Walker received 48.5 percent, and 2.1 percent went to Libertarian spoiler Chase Oliver. The latter won’t be on the Dec. 6 ballot, and this worried the Democrats enough to call in Elias, who filed a lawsuit alleging that the state illegally prohibited early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger responded as follows:

If recent elections prove one thing, it’s that voters expect candidates to focus on winning at the ballot box- not at the courthouse. Senator Warnock and his Democratic Party allies are seeking to change Georgia law right before an election based on their political preferences. Instead of muddying the water and pressuring counties to ignore Georgia law, Senator Warnock should be allowing county election officials to continue preparations for the upcoming runoff.

At issue was a 2016 statute that prohibits early voting on the second Saturday before a runoff if it follows a “legal holiday occurring on the Thursday or Friday immediately preceding such second Saturday.” The Elias lawsuit argued that the law applies only to primary and general elections, despite six references to runoffs in its text. Last Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox ruled in favor of Warnock, finding that the law “does not explicitly prohibit counties from conducting advance voting on Saturday, November 26, 2022.”

Warnock was predictably elated by the ruling. Friday evening, he took to Twitter and celebrated the decision: “This is a big WIN for democracy. Saturday voting is critical for Georgia voters, especially students and workers. I’m glad the courts have spoken in favor of making it easier for Georgia voters to have a say in their own democracy.” Not everyone saw it as a victory for the voters, however. Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project, issued a statement denouncing the judge’s misreading of the statute:

Tonight’s court ruling in Georgia is a case study in judicial activism. Left-wing lawyer Marc Elias and Georgia Democrats invited the court to twist state law for political gain. Georgia law is crystal clear: voting cannot take place on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.… Rewriting the law in Georgia at the last minute creates a slew of complications that further distorts elections, confuses voters, and creates unequal voting opportunities across Georgia.

According to Mark Neisse of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the secretary of state’s office responded to the ruling with this terse statement: “We disagree with the Court’s order and look forward to a prompt appeal.” If the state fights the ruling, an appeals court would have to stay Cox’s ruling this week. Heavily Democratic Fulton County has already announced that early voting for the runoff will begin on Saturday, Nov. 26, and continue every day through Dec. 2. A court order forbidding Saturday voting would create chaos.

This mess provides a good argument in favor of the independent state legislature (ISL) theory at issue in a case upon which the U.S. Supreme Court will rule this term. Moore v. Harper is about a dispute between North Carolina’s legislature and the state’s Supreme Court. The former has petitioned SCOTUS to rule that the Constitution forbids state courts from reviewing laws passed by state legislatures to redistrict congressional seats or to establish voting rules. Predictably, Elias is worried about this case. He describes the ISL theory thus:

The [independent state legislature] theory interprets the word “legislature” in the U.S. Constitution to mean that state legislatures — and only state legislatures — can make laws regulating federal elections. This differs from the standard interpretation, in which “legislature” means the state’s general lawmaking process, which includes the governor’s veto, citizen-led ballot measures and rulings of state courts.

The last four words of this description explain why Elias is concerned that SCOTUS will adopt the ISL theory in Moore v. Harper. If that happens, he will no longer be able to descend on a state like Georgia just before an election or a runoff and meddle with laws that Democratic politicians find inconvenient. If the ISL doctrine had been in place when he filed his lawsuit last week, the matter would have been outside of Cox’s jurisdiction. There would have been no ruling from the court reversing the state’s guidance on Saturday voting.

 

The Georgia Court of Appeals has denied an attempt to stop early voting on Saturday for the Senate runoff — a ruling that allows counties to open polling places after the Thanksgiving holiday.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 22, 2022

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Snowedin

1 year ago

The rogue judge needs to be physically removed from hie post.

1

Doreen R Hutchins

1 year ago

How can Elias go from state court to state court successfully changing election laws that are mandated by state legislatures: STATE LEGISLATURES who have SOLE AUTHORITY to create their election laws per our US Constitution, and confirmed by individual state constitutions?

We need investigations and forensic financial audits on all these judges!

6

davedutchess

1 year ago

Reply to  Doreen R Hutchins

I am still aiting to hear that Sam has disappeared, or his body parts are found in several different states.

0

D

Keith1941

1 year ago

We know the 2020 election was stolen and nothing was done to fix it. Widespread corruption is right out in the open with the Bidens being the most obvious. Whatever Trump ‘may’ have done makes him a piker compared to democrats and rinos. And years ago, I would chuckle at the banana republics…

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D

VTS

1 year ago

…because repubs can not master anything. The party is corrupt to the core.

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MD Anthony

1 year ago

The Liberal Crackers own Warnock and Warnock is happy to perform
A prostitute in any other name

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