Georgia Supreme Court Rules on 2020 Election Ballots Case, Tells Lower Court to Reconsider
The Georgia Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a lower court to reconsider a case involving the 2020 election.
In the case, Jeffords v. Fulton County, the plaintiffs say their votes were “diluted by the inclusion of allegedly unlawful ballots” in the election two years ago. They are seeking a review of 147,000 absentee ballots to determine whether they are illegitimate.
Superior Court Judge Brian Amero dismissed the lawsuit last year. Since then, it has snaked its way to the Georgia Supreme Court, which ruled that the case must be reconsidered because of a new precedent established by a completely different case, according to WXIA-TV in Atlanta.
The high court’s order explains that the new precedent comes from its ruling in Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Henry County Board of Commissioners in October.
In that ruling, the court determined that the plaintiff organization did not qualify as a “community stakeholder” and therefore its claims of injuries and damages had no standing, as reported by WXIA.
With that precedent, the high court has compelled the Court of Appeals to listen to the Fulton County case once again.
The county, Georgia’s most populous, has been ground zero for election fraud cases in the state since 2020.
Fulton helped flip the state blue that year, giving Georgia’s electoral votes to Democrat Joe Biden in his race against then-President Donald Trump.
Trump and his supporters have directed heavy criticism toward the way Fulton County conducted the election, and the county is the focus of an ongoing investigation by a special grand jury.
The Peach State has seen its fair share of election litigation and lawfare since 2020.
Both Democrats and Republicans have sought to score victories in the courtroom that may help them at the ballot box.
In the wake of this year’s midterm elections, more than 215 election suits have been filed by progressive organizations after most Democrats fell short at the state level, according to Politico.
The GOP has also been busy both before and after the midterms.
In the run-up to the U.S. Senate runoff earlier this month, the Georgia Supreme Court was again asked to make a ruling, this time regarding in-person early voting.
According to Axios, the state Republican Party filed suit in an attempt to halt early voting on the Saturday before the runoff.
It said the counties partaking in such voting processes were skewed toward Democrats, while most of the rest of the state halted in-person early voting so close to the election.
This disparity, the GOP argued, would be “eviscerating the statutorily-required uniformity among Georgia’s counties on that day,” creating an “unequal system.”
The high court did not agree and ruled against the plaintiffs.
While it is unclear whether anything will come out of the Fulton County suit upon reconsideration, it is clear Trump supporters aren’t ready to give up the fight.
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