A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit that challenged whether the state could take over county election oversight and prohibit ballot photography.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee ruled Tuesday that the plaintiffs, led by the election security group Coalition for Good Governance, failed to show they had been harmed by the provisions in Georgia’s 2021 voting law. Boulee did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit.
While the decision upholds parts of the voting law passed in the wake of Republican Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020, other lawsuits against it remain pending, including allegations that the law is racially discriminatory.
“The court’s decision affirms the integrity of Georgia’s elections and upholds the state’s ability to allow every lawful voter the opportunity to cast a ballot,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “Since the passage of Senate Bill 202, Georgia has conducted multiple successful elections with record voter turnout, proving that election integrity measures and voter access can go hand in hand.”
Boulee had previously put the ballot photography ban on hold in 2021, finding that such far-reaching restrictions violated free speech protections.
That ruling allowed photographing ballots while they were being counted, recounted or audited. It remained illegal to photograph completed ballots in polling places while voting was underway.
But Boulee’s ruling this week ends the case, and with it, his prior decision on ballot photography.
Coalition for Good Government Executive Director Marilyn Marks said she is considering the next steps.
“SB 202’s unconstitutional ban on photographing anonymous voted ballots is being aggressively and selectively enforced against plaintiffs and the press,” Marks said. “When the General Assembly enacts unconstitutional legislation, timely challenge is essential.”
Marks said the case could be refiled if the state begins to enforce state takeovers of county election boards. The State Election Board declined to take over Fulton County’s election board in 2023, finding it had made significant improvements.
The lawsuit also opposed parts of the law that criminalized intentionally observing a voter casting a ballot and a ban on observers estimating the number of ballots cast.
Most of the voting law has survived various court challenges so far, including its limitations on drop boxes, additional forms of ID for absentee voting and a ban on handing out food and water to voters waiting in line.
The only parts of the law that remain invalidated by the courts are its criminal penalties for distributing refreshments to voters who are more than 150 feet away from a polling place, and a prohibition on counties rejecting ballots of voters who did not write their correct birth date on absentee ballot envelopes.
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