GA GOP Leaders Outraged After Abrupt Ballot Drop-Off Extension

Four Democrat-led counties in Georgia extended the in-person drop-off hours for absentee ballots this weekend. But some local Republican leaders expressed frustration with the abrupt change, telling The Federalist they were never directly informed about the last-minute changes and as a result these drop-off locations were unsupervised by GOP observers for hours.

Fulton County announced Friday that “four election offices around Fulton County will be opened throughout the weekend to accommodate voters seeking to hand-return their absentee ballots.” The origin of the guidance is unclear, but Fulton County Republican Party Chairwoman Stephanie Endres told The Federalist the guidance came from Fulton County Director of Registration and Elections Nadine Williams. The Federalist has reached out to Williams but received no response as of publication.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a post on X that state law permits election officials to “receive absentee ballots in person at [government] facilities if the county chooses.”

But in a subsequent X post, Raffensperger said he was “concerned” that there were issues in Fulton County allowing monitors to observe the process, and RNC Chairman Michael Whatley complained of poll watchers being denied access to these ballot drop-off locations.

Endres told The Federalist that she was not directly notified in advance about the extension, inhibiting her ability to adequately staff the four locations with observers to oversee the process.

“People are slowly getting to these places and trying to see if they can get access,” Endres told The Federalist. “While I was in court Friday for a case against the county, Fulton County apparently put notice on their website about these extended hours. We didn’t get direct notice; you had to be on the website and just see it yourself — otherwise you just didn’t know. So we weren’t able to adequately staff these sites because we were kept in the dark.”

“Luckily we have people getting out there to observe, but we missed the entire morning,” Endres said.

Endres’ view of the siutation is similar to that expressed by DeKalb County Republican Party Chairwoman Marci McCarthy. DeKalb County also extended its acceptance of absentee ballots in person. But McCarthy told The Federalist she was only made aware of the extended hours after she saw a notice posted to the county’s election website. The notice says voters “can hand-deliver their absentee ballots to the VRE [Voter Registration and Elections] office …”

McCarthy says she was never given an opportunity to schedule any observers in advance because “at no point in time were my board members or myself ever notified that there was going to be any type of acceptance of absentee ballots this weekend.”

“These acceptances of absentee ballots were being done outside of the purview of legal observers without notification,” McCarthy said. “Nobody was watching these absentee ballots come in as prescribed by law because we had no advance notice.”

“We now have an observer at the DeKalb County Election Headquarters — five hours after the location was opened. What happened between 8:00 a.m. [and] 1:00 p.m. is unknown because we were not given advance notice. If we were, we would have had our observer there,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy confirmed to The Federalist the DeKalb County Republican Party did not sue over this issue.

Cobb County also extended its absentee ballot drop-off time period. Cobb County Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs told The Federalist she was not notified about the change and was likewise caught off guard.

Grubbs tells The Federalist that an observer has since been dispatched to the location and that she has not heard of any incidents in which an observer was denied access to the process.

Gwinnett County voters were also permitted to return their absentee ballots in person this weekend.

Whatley said in a post on X on Saturday that “Democrat officials in Georgia are playing fast and loose with election law.”

“Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Gwinnett counties decided at the last minute to accept ballots over the weekend — which disregards the law,” Whatley said in his post. “They have also failed to let our poll observers in to watch the process. The Secretary of State has issued guidance to allow Republican poll watchers in but local officials REFUSE.”

“Our election integrity operation has filed a lawsuit,” Whatley said.

The Federalist asked the RNC which lawsuit Whatley was referencing since he cited four counties. A separate lawsuit was filed by the Fulton County Republican Party and Georgia Republican Party on Friday asking for the in-person absentee ballot return sites to be closed. The suit argued that the county violated state law, which requires all drop boxes to remain closed after early voting ends. Early voting ended Friday. A judge ruled that since ballot drop boxes were not being used, there was “no violation.”

The RNC did not specify to The Federalist whether Whatley’s tweet referred to a separate lawsuit filed against one or more of the four counties, and the RNC did not provide any description of what the suit alleges.

But even if no law was violated, counties allegedly making last-minute postings without directly notifying local political leaders is concerning because, as McCarthy and Endres said, election operations went unsupervised for hours.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2