Georgia judge rejects GOP lawsuit trying to block counties from accepting hand-returned mail ballots

Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Saturday rejected a Republican lawsuit trying to block counties from opening election offices on Saturday and Sunday to let voters hand in their mail ballots in person.

The lawsuit only named Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of the city of Atlanta and is home to 11% of the state’s voters. But other populous counties that tend to vote for Democrats also announced election offices would open over the weekend to allow hand return of absentee ballots.

Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said 105 ballots were received Saturday at the four locations in that county.

The Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party said in a statement Saturday night that they sent letters to six counties demanding that all ballots received after Friday be kept separate from other ballots, saying they intend to sue over the issue. The letters were sent to Chatham, Athens-Clarke, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.

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