Updated at 7:05 p.m. Friday
The Cobb County Board of Elections voted unanimously Friday to deny three challenges to the residency status of thousands of voters ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff election.
The board – and the Cobb County attorneys who weighed in – found no probable cause in the lists of nearly 50,000 voters presented by two fellow Cobb County residents.
The residents alleged that the voters on the lists were no longer Georgia residents and, therefore, should be removed from voting rolls.
“This is a pretty regular practice; you’ll even hear it called ‘caging,’ where they wait until a certain point in the election and people will attempt to make this challenge,” said Daniel White, an attorney who represents the board.
Had the board found probable cause, it would have been up to the challengers to back up their allegations with specific proof that each voter on the list no longer lived in Georgia.
Fulton Reportedly Fires Workers Who Testified To Senate Committee
The Georgia secretary of state’s office is condemning the apparent firing of two Fulton County elections workers.
The two recently testified about the Nov. 3 election at a legislative hearing.
Suzy Voyles has worked Fulton County elections for more than 20 years; Bridget Thorne for nearly 10 years. In addition to working on Election Day, Thorne helped print ballots for logic and accuracy testing prior to Nov. 3.
Both testified Dec. 3 about what they perceived as irregularities and mismanagement of the Nov. 3 election in Fulton County.
In a statement, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said “though we have found no credible evidence of widespread fraud, it is important that individuals can raise their voice when they believe they have seen wrongdoing.”
Fulton County responded Friday evening and said in a statement that the two employees had been “under review in November” for infractions including using phones to take photos in areas where they are forbidden, inappropriately showing ballots to a poll monitor and making “false and misleading” claims on YouTube about the way elections in Fulton were conducted.
The statement said Fulton “notified the workers’ third-party employer that their services would not be used” for the Jan. 5 election and noted that other employees were not invited back as well.
“Fulton County is committed to continuous improvement and frequently seeks input from poll workers as part of that improvement process,” the statement read.
Turnout Remains High Through Four Days Of Early Voting
Through Thursday, more than 640,000 voters have cast in-person ballots ahead of the Jan. 5 U.S Senate runoffs.
That keeps early voting turnout for the runoffs slightly ahead of the pace set in the general election in November.
Combined with the absentee ballots that have been accepted, more than 1.1 million votes have been cast so far for the runoff elections.
Democrats need to win both seats in order to achieve a 50-50 split in the U.S. Senate. In that instance, the vice president would serve as the tie-breaking vote.
Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are trying to hold off challenges from Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
