Trump campaign, Georgia Republicans file federal suit in ballot controversy

The Trump campaign and Georgia Republicans have filed a federal lawsuit in Georgia to halt the counting of ballots that were handed in after early voting ended Friday.

The lawsuit names the following counties: Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Chatham, Athens-Clarks and Clayton, which is just south of Atlanta.

The Trump campaign said early voting in Georgia was “required to end statewide on Friday, November 1.”

 “At the last minute several heavily Democrat counties announced they would open their offices over the weekend to receive mail ballots. This is illegal, so we immediately filed a state court lawsuit. In a win for election integrity, the counties retreated from plans to keep drop boxes open over the weekend, but we continue to fight the illegal re-opening of the centers in state and federal court,” the campaign said in a statement. “This is a clear, partisan violation of the law intended to boost Democrat efforts in Georgia. With just two days until our country’s most important election, it is critical for officials to follow the law and run the election in a fair and transparent manner.”

The campaign said such actions “undermine the security of our elections and drive up mistrust in the process.”

“At minimum, we want to sequester the ballots that were submitted without proper oversight of our election observers,” Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon said in a statement. “Additionally, we have requested Georgia’s Secretary of State and Attorney General get involved to resolve this matter and find answers to the burning questions we all have.”

He added: “We will keep the public informed all along the way. However, this doesn’t change our overall mission. We MUST keep our foot on the gas and turn out voters on Tuesday like our lives depend on it. Because it does.”