The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Georgia Republican Party filed lawsuits Thursday against election officials in Fulton and Gwinnett counties, charging that both boards created unauthorized methods for returning absentee ballots in violation of state law. Secretary of State candidate Tim Fleming and local Republican parties joined the suits.
"Georgia legislators are responsible for making the state's election laws, not unelected bureaucrats," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said.
"County election boards cannot rewrite those rules by creating unauthorized drop-off locations or weakening safeguards. The RNC is fighting to protect election integrity and ensure the law is enforced."
Georgia law allows exactly three ways to return an absentee ballot: by mail, by hand delivery to the registrar or absentee ballot clerk, or through an authorized drop box.
Both counties ignored that.
The lawsuits argue those limits were not accidental. After the 2020 election cycle, Georgia lawmakers rewrote large portions of the state's election code through state law, including detailed rules governing absentee ballot drop boxes, chain-of-custody procedures, ballot transfers, and poll-watcher access.
The plaintiffs argue Fulton and Gwinnett officials exceeded their authority by creating ballot-return procedures not authorized under state law.
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In Gwinnett, Board members David Hancock, Loretta Mirandola, Alice O'Lenick, Richard Porter, and Amy Bray adopted a policy in February 2024 letting voters hand absentee ballots to poll managers at locations without drop boxes. The ballots get stamped, placed in a "secured ballot bag," and transported to the registrar at an unspecified later time, with no sworn collection team, no transfer form, and no registrar verification upon receipt.
State law requires drop-box ballots to be collected by a sworn two-person team with signed transfer forms and verified counts. The bags have none of that. State law also caps Gwinnett at five drop boxes, and the lawsuit alleges the county had already established six before the bags entered the picture.
Fulton went further. Board members Sherri Allen, Douglass Selby, Teresa Crawford, and Julie Adams approved a policy in April 2026 appointing poll managers and assistant managers at 22 polling places as "deputy registrars," then had voters hand over their ballots, receive a label on the envelope, and drop them into an "ABM ballot container" for transport to the elections hub.
The lawsuit says the containers are "an attempt by the Fulton County BOE to make an end-run around Georgia law . . . by renaming ABM ballot drop boxes as 'ABM ballot containers.'"
Fulton is permitted seven drop boxes and had already reached that limit. The 22 containers would push the county well past it, and the policy keeps them open through Election Day, even though state law requires all drop boxes to close when advance voting ends the Friday before.
Both policies also block Republican poll watchers from observing ballot handoffs, removing oversight the legislature specifically required. Once unlawfully received ballots are mixed in with legitimate ones, there is no way to separate them.
In November 2024, the RNC sued Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Gwinnett over the same issue.
The courts will now decide if Georgia's largest counties get away with it again.
Editor’s Note: Republicans are fighting for election integrity by requiring proper identification to vote.
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