Weeks out from the November election after two hurricanes, Democrats and civil rights groups in various states, including battleground states Democrats and Republicans covet, have launched lawsuits to extend voter registration deadlines.
Just this week in Georgia, where the voter registration deadline was Monday, civil rights groups were denied motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.
The Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda and Stacey Abrams’ New Georgia Project filed their initial complaint against Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party Oct. 7, arguing that not extending the deadline violates voters’ rights.
Secretary Raffensberger’s office responded to the court’s decision in a statement, saying “We agree with Judge Ross, who said, ‘I don’t think we had even one voter who had been harmed or would likely be harmed by failure to register to vote.’”
The secretary also held a press conference shortly after the hurricane to announce various measures taken by the state to ensure citizens could make it to the ballot box.
Fox News Digital also spoke with Chad Ennis, vice president of the conservative nonprofit Honest Elections Project, who noted that several of the lawsuits were filed close to the state’s voter registration deadline, saying the judges who declined to extend the registration period made “the right rulings given the time frame.”
“I hate to say it is politically motivated, although the left always wants voter registration up until the day of the election,” Ennis said. “In a lot of cases, during COVID, they used COVID as an excuse to change deadlines and, unfortunately, they also tried to use the hurricanes to change the deadlines here.”
Leslie Marshall, a Democratic strategist, told Fox News Digital she thinks the denial to extend voter registration could actually negatively affect Republicans come November.
“Because this race is so close and because Donald Trump and Republicans have made, not gains with women, but they have made gains with African Americans — specifically, male African Americans — they may be shooting themselves in the foot with this ruling,” Marshall said.
On the other hand, Democrats in South Carolina were successful in their legal maneuvers after the South Carolina Democratic Party (SCDP) sued the South Carolina Elections Commission, and a circuit court judge ruled to extend the registration deadline to Oct. 14.
“We are pleased the voter registration deadline has been extended. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s an issue of the public good and ensuring the right to vote is protected for everyone,” said SCDP Chair Christale Spain.
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South Carolina Election Commission public information officer John Michael Catalano said the commission was “able to comply with the order with minimal impact to election administration. We don’t anticipate this causing any issues for voters during early voting or on Election Day.”
Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key Wednesday night, leaving around 3.2 million people in Florida alone without power by Thursday afternoon. Milton came in as a Category 3 storm, just a few weeks after Hurricane Helene battered parts of Florida before devastating North Carolina.
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