Associated Press
President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Georgia Republican Party have filed a lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Elections asking a judge to order the county to secure and account for ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day.
State party chair David Shafer said in a statement Wednesday night that they planned to sue in a dozen counties.
The lawsuit alleges that a Republican observer watched a poll worker take unprocessed absentee ballots from a back room and mix them into processed absentee ballots waiting to be tabulated.
In Georgia, ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to count. Chatham County contains Savannah and leans Democratic.
A woman who answered the phone at the Chatham County Board of Elections offices declined to comment to a reporter from the Associated Press.
Georgia is among a handful of states that The Associated Press has not called. In the race to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, Democrat Joe Biden currently has 264 while Trump has 214.
The Trump campaign offered a lengthy statement explaining its position.
“President Trump and his team are fighting for the good of the nation to uphold the rule of law, and Georgia’s law is very clear: to legally count, mail ballots must be received by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. That’s still the law, even after Democrats sued earlier this year to extend the deadline and delay Election Day—President Trump and Republicans fought to uphold Georgia law, and we won.”
“But today, a Republican poll observer in Georgia witnessed 53 late absentee ballots illegally added to a stack of on-time absentee ballots in Chatham County. We will not allow Democrat election officials to steal this election from President Trump with late, illegal ballots. President Trump and the Georgia Republican Party have filed suit to require all Georgia counties to separate any and all late-arriving ballots from all legally cast ballots to ensure a free, fair election in which only legal, valid ballots count.”
“We look forward to the court swiftly resolving this issue and to President Trump’s upcoming repeat win in Georgia.”
