Georgia Republicans and former President Trump's campaign said they would continue to pursue legal action against “concerted efforts” by Democratic-dominated counties to accept ballots after the early voting period ended.
A statement from the Georgia Republican Party obtained by FOX Business on Sunday details the party's latest efforts to prevent counties from counting ballots handed in over the weekend.
Seven counties are named in the lawsuit: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Chatham, and Athens-Clarke. Fulton County is home to the state capital, Atlanta.
Commissioner Josh McCoon claimed in the letter that these counties were “illegally accepting ballots this weekend after early voting ended on Friday.”
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The Georgia Republican Party has filed a federal lawsuit alleging early voting violations. (Getty Images / iStock)
“The Republican Party of Georgia, in conjunction with the RNC, has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to prevent the counting of these ballots,” McCune wrote. “At the very least, we want to sequester any ballots submitted without proper oversight by election observers.”
“Additionally, we call on Georgia's Secretary of State and Attorney General to engage with us to resolve this issue and find answers to the burning questions we all have,” he added.
McCune said Republicans uncovered how a 501c3 organization “knew how to inform voters within 15 minutes of the end of early voting that six Democratic counties were extending weekend hours.” He said he intended to do so.
“Why did these six counties not notify the State Board of Elections, county election boards, secretaries of state, and local governments of their plans to substantially extend early voting?” the letter asked. “Who ordered Fulton County and Chatham County officials to prohibit poll watchers from monitoring the voting process? Why did they do that?”
McCoon concluded his update by imploring the Georgia Republican Party to “keep your foot on the gas.”
“We will keep the public informed throughout the process,” the party said. “But this doesn't change our overall mission. We must keep our foot on the gas and send voters out on Tuesday like their lives depended on it. Because… Because it is.”
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Voters cast their ballots at early voting locations in Atlanta on October 31, 2024. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Trump campaign issued a statement Sunday identifying itself as one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
“At the last minute, several heavily Democratic counties announced that they would open offices and accept mail-in ballots over the weekend,” the campaign said in a statement. “This is illegal, so we immediately filed suit in state court. In an effort to win election integrity, the county backed away from its plan to keep drop boxes open on weekends, but we “We continue to fight against the illegal reopening of centers within the United States” and in federal court. ”
“This is a clear partisan violation of the law aimed at boosting Democratic efforts in Georgia,” the campaign added in a statement. “With only two days left until our country's most important election, it is critical that authorities follow the law and conduct it in a fair and transparent manner.”
The new lawsuit comes a day after a similar lawsuit filed by Republicans was dropped. On Saturday, a Fulton County judge dismissed a lawsuit over a normally closed office allowing voters to submit ballots over the weekend.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer rejected all arguments from Republican attorney Alex Kaufman, who argued that absentee ballots were hand-delivered and should not have been accepted after the early voting period ended.
“We find that a voter's manual return of an absentee ballot does not violate these two regulatory provisions,” the judges argued.
On November 1, 2024, voters cast their ballots on the last day of early voting in Gwinnett County, Georgia. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Georgia Republican Party for additional comment.
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
