A federal judge in Georgia delivered a stinging rebuke to Republicans on Election Day, denying their last-minute bid to stop absentee ballots from being counted in seven counties, all known for favoring Democrats. The attempt, described as politically selective, aimed to upend voting protocols that allowed ballot returns over the weekend and on Monday.
In a tense phone hearing, U.S. District Judge Stan Baker, appointed by former President Donald Trump, minced no words. He highlighted the troubling partisan nature of the request: “I would only be invalidating votes in the select counties that plaintiffs have cherry-picked based on nothing more than the past political preferences of the citizens in those counties,” Baker asserted. He emphasized that granting the Republicans’ demand would unfairly skew the election, accusing them of trying to suppress voters unlikely to back their candidate.
The challenge emerged in Georgia, a high-stakes battleground, pivotal in the fiercely contested race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Georgia had proven crucial in 2020 when President Joe Biden secured a historic Democratic win there, breaking a nearly 30-year Republican streak.
Harris’s campaign wasted no time in applauding the ruling, with spokesperson Charles Lutvak declaring, “Georgia is making its voice heard.” The Republican National Committee did not issue an immediate response.
As voters flooded the polls in one of the election’s most decisive states, the fight for every ballot in Georgia remains emblematic of the broader struggle shaping this contentious presidential race.
