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The state of Georgia got another nudge from a federal judge that may push the Governor’s Race toward a runoff.
“A federal judge has ruled that Georgia counties must count absentee ballots even if the voter’s date of birth is incorrect or missing, and he is preventing the state from finalizing election results until that happens,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“Although U.S. District Judge Steve Jones agreed with the Georgia Democratic Party and Stacey Abrams’ campaign on this issue, he ruled against them on two others. He will not require counties to accept absentee ballots with incorrect residence addresses or to accept provisional ballots cast by people who attempted to vote in a different county than where they are registered to vote.”
Some Democratic counties including Fulton and Dekalb had already been including absentee ballots with birthdates missing or incorrect, but now all 159 counties must do the same. Democratic Candidate Stacey Abrams has been somewhat successful in winning court rulings requiring more votes be counted despite the efforts of Republicans to disallow ballots with various issues.
“The Secretary of State is ENJOINED from certifying the State Election results until she has confirmed that each county’s returns include the counts for absentee ballots where the birth date was omitted or incorrect,” he wrote.
Abrams has said she will fight for every vote to be counted in hopes of pushing the election to a runoff, but she is about 18,000 short.
The additional ballots could affect other very close races in Georgia especially GA CD-7 where:
Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux narrowed her deficit in Georgia’s 7th District race late Tuesday after the Gwinnett elections board counted a trove of provisional ballots, all but assuring the state’s only unresolved congressional contest will drag on for several more days.
About 530 votes now separate the Georgia State University professor from incumbent Republican Rob Woodall. That puts the contest within recount territory should the margins hold after Gwinnett tallies several hundred previously-rejected absentee ballots later this week.
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