A judge in Georgia on Saturday dismissed a Republican lawsuit that sought to block voters from hand-returning mail-in ballots in the state over the weekend.
The lawsuit centered around officials in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, opening normally closed country offices on Saturday and Sunday to allow voters to hand in their ballots.
Five other Democratic-leaning counties in the state also announced that county offices would be open over the weekend.
Early voting in Georgia ended on Friday and the lawsuit, filed Friday night, cited a section of state law that says ballot drop boxes cannot be open past the end of advance voting.
But state law also states that voters can hand in mail ballots until the polls close on Tuesday night.
GOP lawyer Alex Kaufman argued in a Saturday emergency hearing that while it’s OK to mail absentee ballots, they shouldn’t be hand-delivered after early voting ends, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer rejected all of his arguments.
“I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,” Farmer said.
A Fulton County spokesperson said on Saturday afternoon that only a couple dozen ballots