Emergency Supreme Court filing warns mail ballot rules could create Georgia chaos
ATLANTA - Georgia election leaders joined a national coalition Wednesday asking the Supreme Court to freeze new federal Postal Service rules before the upcoming general election.
Georgia mail ballot rules
What we know:
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and local election directors from Cherokee, Lowndes, Morgan, Muscogee and Paulding counties joined an emergency amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The filing urges the court to block newly finalized Postal Service regulations from taking effect for the Nov. 3 midterm election.
The contested rules require local election workers to redesign ballot envelopes, register with an unbuilt federal portal and hand-deliver outbound mailings to postal facilities for piece-by-piece scanning. Georgia officials noted that local offices already printed their envelopes and set budgets months ago, leaving no time or money to adopt the requirements.
Federal postal regulations
What we don't know:
The Supreme Court has not announced when it will issue a decision regarding the stay request.
It remains unclear how many already-printed absentee ballot envelopes in Georgia would fail to meet the Postal Service's layout specifications.
Voting impact in Georgia
Why you should care:
Federal law requires state election offices to transmit mail ballots to military and overseas voters by Sept. 19.
Local administrators warned that requiring staff to manually verify millions of envelopes against an untested database could cause severe logistical bottlenecks, potentially delaying when voters receive their ballots.
Legal precedent
The backstory:
The court filing relies heavily on the Purcell principle, a legal standard that cautions against changing election rules shortly before voting takes place.
The Postal Service issued its regulation in late August with immediate effect, leaving election workers roughly nine weeks to adjust. Election leaders argue that resolving the issue after the midterms will prevent widespread confusion.
Additional voter details
What you can do:
If you are looking for local information regarding voting options or key dates for upcoming elections, check with your state or county election authorities. Voters can review their voter status or locate county resources on the official Georgia Secretary of State My Voter Page. To learn more about mail-in ballot guidelines and absentee voting options across the state, visit the Georgia Secretary of State Absentee Voting Portal.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from an emergency amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States on Sept. 9 by current and former state and local election officials, as well as reporting from The Associated Press.