Atlanta — Today, a federal judge, who was appointed by Donald Trump and was a Federalist Society member, ruled against the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party in their federal lawsuit challenging seven Democratic-leaning counties’ extension of hours to allow voters more time to hand deliver their absentee ballots over the weekend. This decision comes after the GOP initially lost a similar lawsuit in Georgia state superior court. Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo issued the following statement

“This decision is a victory for Georgia voters and a testament to the strength of our democracy. The GOP’s repeated anti-voter lawsuits reveal their true strategy: suppressing votes, especially those who lean Democratic, to tilt the scales in favor of Donald Trump and disregard any kind of truth or law. The Trump-appointed judge who ruled on this suit was clear that their lawsuit was baseless and this decision reinforces that the rule of law and voters’ rights will prevail over partisan efforts to undermine our elections.”

The federal judge highlighted that the GOP’s complaint lacked a "basic level of statutory review and reading comprehension," rejecting their baseless claims, reaffirming the legality of the counties’ actions, and urging the GOP lawyers to read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." He also said the GOP was attempting to "tip the scales of this election by discriminating against [counties] less likely to vote for their candidate." The judge chastised the GOP lawyers for bringing the suit.

Notably, the GOP did not challenge similar weekend ballot acceptance practices in Republican-leaning counties like Walton County, revealing the partisan nature of their actions. Walton County even shared this practice on their government Facebook page before quietly removing the post.

Both the state and federal suits were filed by Alex Kaufman, general counsel for the Georgia Republican Party, who was involved in Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Kaufman joined the infamous call where Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” him 11,780 votes he did not earn. Kaufman is the same attorney who represented Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections member and election denier Julie Adams in her failed lawsuit seeking to empower local election officials to refuse to certify election results.

Use of Suit to Spread False Claims: After losing in state court, the RNC and Georgia GOP resorted to spreading disinformation with false claims alleging legal violations from county election offices and rallied election denier activiststo show up at Fulton County election offices. The disinformation was even rebutted by Secretary of State Raffensperger.

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