OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A lawsuit seeking to review absentee ballots from Fulton County, Georgia’s 2020 election is being sent back to the court of appeals.
Georgia’s Supreme Court ruled this week on a lawsuit filed in December 2020, which asked that 147,000 absentee ballots be unsealed and reviewed to see if any were illegitimate. Nine Georgia voters filed the lawsuit and alleged there was fraud in the state’s most populous county.
“A judge dismissed the case since no fraud was found in the 2020 election. Over the years, it has winded its way through the justice system as the group of voters pushes to check the absentee ballots. Ultimately, the Georgia Supreme Court remanded Caroline Jeffords v. Fulton County. Now the case goes back to the court of appeals, which is tasked with taking another look at the argument,” 11 Alive reported.
“In its order, the court said the case should be under reconsideration in light of Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Henry County Board of Commissioners, a case concerning confederate monuments. Earlier this year, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization doesn’t qualify as a “community stakeholder,” thus lower courts were in the right to dismiss their claim for injury and damages as the county board sought to remove confederate statues. Now the justices are saying with this new precedent, the appeals court could look at the Fulton County case with new information to consider,” the outlet added.
In another closely-watched case, the highest court in the home state of President Joe Biden has delivered a crushing blow to Democrats.
The Delaware Supreme Court has struck down dame-day voter registration and voting by mail, two measures that were passed by the Democrat-dominated state legislature. The justices agreed that the statutes violated the Delaware Constitution.
“The Delaware Supreme Court has issued an opinion that universal mail-in voting and same-day registration violate the constitution. This past summer, the Delaware General Assembly passed a law allowing universal mail-in voting and same-day voter registration. The Public Interest Legal Foundation then filed a lawsuit against the law, alleging that it violated Delaware’s Constitution. In the opinion, the Court states that Article V, Section 4A of the Delaware Constitution only allows for absentee voting in certain enumerated circumstances. In addition, the Court writes that the state constitution establishes a deadline for voter registration,” local news outlet WMDT reported.
“The Democratic-controlled Delaware General Assembly hurriedly passed the voting-by-mail law this past June after failing to secure enough Republican support to amend the state constitution to enshrine the policy. Lawmakers previously approved a separate voting-by-mail law during the pandemic in 2020, invoking emergency powers that allowed the statute to escape the usual constitutional scrutiny. Republicans across the country, including then-President Donald Trump, were critical of mail-in voting measures enacted at the height of the pandemic and accused election officials of ignoring federal and state constitutions by allowing it,” the outlet added.
Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which brought the lawsuit, hailed the ruling.
“This was a monumental victory in the election integrity space. This is the first time a state Supreme Court has invalidated an election statute. This law violated the plain text of the Delaware Constitution. Today’s opinion is a victory for the rule of law in elections,” said Adams, a former Department of Justice civil rights attorney.
Ken Blackwell, a PILF board member and former GOP secretary of state for Ohio, noted further that “election integrity should be an issue all Americans can support.”
“The fact that this might be the first time a state supreme court has struck down a state election law highlights the perilous times we are in, where partisan politicians are willing to cross lines that have never been crossed, willing to seize and keep power at all costs,” Blackwell noted further in a statement.
