**Judge Rejects Republican Lawsuit to Block Weekend Absentee Ballot Drop-off in Georgia**

In a significant legal development on Saturday, a Georgia judge dismissed a Republican lawsuit aimed at preventing counties from opening election offices over the weekend to facilitate the hand delivery of absentee ballots. The lawsuit had singled out Fulton County, a predominantly Democratic area encompassing much of Atlanta and accounting for 11% of the state's electorate. However, several other densely populated counties with Democratic leanings had also planned to open their election offices over the weekend for ballot returns.

Filed late Friday, the lawsuit cited a Georgia law stating that ballot drop boxes could not be used past the end of advance voting, which concluded Friday. Nevertheless, Georgia law also clearly specifies that voters can hand-deliver their absentee ballots to county election offices up until the polls close at 7 PM on Election Day. Despite this unambiguous mandate, lawyer Alex Kaufman argued in an emergency hearing on Saturday that voters should not be allowed to hand-deliver absentee ballots after early in-person voting ended on Friday and before Election Day started on Tuesday. Kaufman contended it was acceptable for ballots to arrive by mail during this period but not for voters to submit them in person.

Judge Farmer ruled against the Republican claim, stating, "I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots." The practice of accepting mail ballots over the counter in Georgia election offices has a long-standing history.

Concerns over the conduct of elections in Fulton County have been a focal point for Republicans for years, especially after former President Donald Trump falsely accused Fulton County workers of election fraud in the 2020 election. State GOP Chair Josh McKoon alleged that Democrat-controlled counties were "illegally accepting ballots," a claim that quickly gained momentum among Republican activists on social media.

Further controversy arose when a Fulton County election official emailed staff, stating that observers would not be permitted inside election offices while ballots were being submitted. Nadine Williams, the Fulton County elections director, clarified during the hearing that these were county offices, not polling places, and thus partisan poll watchers had never been allowed in these spaces. Later, Williams sent another email highlighting that the process should be public and open to everyone without requiring credentials or badges. She also mentioned the presence of an independent monitoring team and potential investigators from the Secretary of State's office.

By late Saturday afternoon, Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez, a Fulton County spokesperson, reported that 105 ballots had been received at four designated locations.