Georgia Secretary of State urges Supreme Court to reject Trump’s mail-in ballot plan

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger filed a brief on Wednesday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration’s plan to use the U.S. Postal Service to vet voters for the November election. The brief, signed by 38 current and former state and local officials from 10 states, takes no position on the legality of Trump’s plan but argues it is too late to implement this year, given that one state has already begun issuing ballots and others will follow shortly.

The officials contend that implementing Trump’s plan would require significant work by states and the Postal Service, including testing new systems, creating compatible data systems, and establishing new processes for mailing ballots. They note that North Carolina has already mailed its first ballots, and Georgia is set to begin mailing its military and overseas ballots on Sept. 15 and other absentee ballots on Oct. 5. The plan would also require states to use a federal ballot portal that does not yet exist and enroll on the national list every voter who casts their ballot by mail.

The brief, prepared by two Atlanta attorneys, was joined by more than a dozen current and former local and state election officials in Georgia, as well as numerous Republican officials from other states. Officials such as Cherokee County Elections Director Anne Dover and Bartow County Elections Supervisor Joseph Kirk emphasized that “elections are not something that simply happen on Election Day” and that the process must be completed responsibly to avoid mistakes, delays, and confusion for voters and election officials. The plan would affect a small minority of voters in Georgia, about 5% of voters used mail ballots in 2024.

Read the full story at ajc.com.