Georgia judge permits early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the Senate runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker
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- A Georgia judge on Friday ruled that state law allowed for early voting on Saturday, Nov. 26.
- The day would represent the only Saturday where voters could ballots ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff.
- The runoff between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker will be the last Senate contest this year.
A judge in Georgia on Friday ruled that state law permits counties to offer early voting on November 26, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, in advance of the December 6 US Senate runoff election between incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican nominee Herschel Walker.
In the ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. wrote that after he "considered the moving papers, arguments of counsel, and references to legal authority," he found that Georgia law didn't bar polls from opening on the Saturday immediately before the election.
Cox said that state law "does not specifically prohibit counties from conducting advanced voting on Saturday, November 26, 2022, for a runoff election."
The judge also blocked the state from "interfering in counties' efforts" to administer the Saturday early voting and "preventing any votes cast on that day from being counted or included in the certified election results."
A spokesperson for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said their office would appeal the decision.
Early voting had been set to commence in Georgia on November 28, with the final day of early voting on December 2.
The November 26 would represent the only Saturday that voters would be able to vote early before the December 6 runoff election date.
The Warnock campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had filed a lawsuit last week making the case that November 26 should be an early voting day, an argument that Raffensperger disagreed with, stating that it would be illegal to hold early voting one day after a state holiday.