Local attorney weighs in on lawsuit to delay early in-person voting on Saturday

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Voters in Georgia will be able to go to the polls beginning this Saturday for early voting in the runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker for U.S. Senate.

That’s after an appeals court judge today denied a state motion to block an earlier ruling allowing Saturday voting to proceed.

In the 26-page document, Attorney General Chris Carr says voting on Saturday, Nov. 26 should NOT be allowed because it violates state law. News Leader 9 spoke with a local attorney who says while he respects Carr’s decision to file the lawsuit, he disagrees with the reason for it.

With just days before the start of early voting in Georgia’s runoff election between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, the race was back in court.

With such a short window to cast ballots, local officials added extra days to vote. Those days include Saturday, Nov. 26 and Sunday, Nov. 27.

The additional days were added after Warnock sued to allow Saturday voting.

“Now you will say to yourself at this point, let’s just end it here,” said Columbus Attorney and State Representative Elect, Teddy Reese. He was one of several local officials who pushed for weekend voting.

However, the state’s Attorney General Chris Carr filed a motion Monday to delay Saturday voting.

His reasoning behind it? According to a 26-page document obtained by, FOX5 in Atlanta, he says state law prevents voting on Saturday’s following federal holidays, like Thanksgiving.

But, Carr’s lawsuit did NOT make it far. Within hours of it being filled, it was denied.

“The right to vote is so fundamental. It goes to the fabric of who we are as a country in everything that we stand for. If we are taking away people’s right to vote for no inherent reason that we are leaving from a democracy perspective, and we are heading more toward a dictatorship,” Reese adds.

The latest ruling says Georgians CAN vote Saturday in the runoff election.

“This is not a partisan thing. This is simply respecting the people’s right to vote, respecting our Constitution, which gives them a right to vote,” said Reese. “We need everyone to get out to vote. We need everyone at the polls go early. Don’t wait until Election Day.”

Early voting in Muscogee County will begin this Saturday at the City Services Center from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. and then on Sunday and the rest of the week all the way until December 2 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Runoff election day is Tuesday, Dec. 6.

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