Georgia

Get ready to hear a lot about ballot curing – and the lawsuits that will follow

By Richard Belcher, WSB-TV
By Richard Belcher, WSB-TV

ATLANTA — As vote counting in Georgia nears an end, lawyers are readying what could be dozens of legal challenges in the presidential race and perhaps the senate race between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff.

A Chatham County superior court judge dismissed a Republican suit Thursday that argued 53 absentee ballots arrived after the 7 p.m. deadline Tuesday night.

But that is just the start.

One metro attorney told Channel 2 investigative reporter Richard Belcher to get ready to hear more about ballot curing.

“Georgia allows ballot curing, but you’ve got to take the initiative to find out whether you have a disallowed ballot, and then the next step is how to fix it,” attorney Lee Parks said.

Basically, if your absentee ballot was rejected by local elections officials -- perhaps because of a questionable signature -- you can try to fix or cure it.

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Parks said Democratic advocacy groups and attorneys work in this area aggressively.

“The Trump campaign will want to challenge ballot curing.”

Ballot curing is done through county elections officials and has to be completed before the county certifies results -- a matter of days.

After all Georgia counties have certified their results, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will certify the state totals -- perhaps as early as this weekend, Parks said.

“That starts the clock on challenges, requests for recounts. You have a very limited amount of time after that certification to file a claim,” Parks said.

“Are there going to be claims filed as soon as he certifies?” Belcher asked Parks.

“I imagine so,” Parks said. “You’re going to see no stone unturned in using the legal avenues that are available to a candidate to make sure that they try to see if they can turn it around. It’s very hard to do.”

Parks said the deadline for the secretary of state to certify the Georgia totals is Nov. 17 -- two weeks after the election.

A candidate trailing by less than 1% after the count is certified can ask for a recount.

Count on that -- whoever is trailing.

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Cox Media Group

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