Absentee ballot issues may disenfranchise thousands of metro Atlanta voters, lawsuit claims
A class-action lawsuit filed by a Cobb County voter claims that a vendor's delays in sending out absentee ballots could disenfranchise thousands of the county's voters.
Michael Olaribigbe filed the lawsuit in Cobb County Superior Court on Tuesday naming member of the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registrations and asking the court to grant him and around 2,900 other voters emergency relief.
According to the lawsuit, the vendor the county has hired to process and send mail-in ballots has failed to follow Georgia law that requires it to mail or issue ballots within "three days after receiving a timely application for an absentee ballot."
The vendor, New York-based Fort Orange Press, is accused in the lawsuit of delaying mailing absentee ballots for up to almost two weeks, saying that the same vendor was responsible for similar delays in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.
Absentee ballots are due by the time polls close on Election Day, which is 7 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2026, for the upcoming midterm election. If you have not received your ballot, you can head to the polls on Election Day to vote in person, however, you will have to sign a document attesting that you are only voting once in the election.
Olaribigbe said that he won't be in Georgia on Tuesday and hadn't received his ballot by Monday, meaning that he would not be able to vote if relief isn't granted.
"For voters who did everything right and applied for absentee ballots well before the deadline, there is a high likelihood that, absent immediate relief, they will be disenfranchised," the lawsuit reads.
He is asking the court to enter an injunction requiring Cobb County election officials to send an absentee ballot by overnight mail to all affected voters and include an overnight return mailing as well.
The Georgia Secretary of State's election data hub shows the county has issued over 14,500 absentee ballots, of which more than 6,500 have been returned and accepted.
CBS News Atlanta has reached out to Cobb County officials for comment about the lawsuit and will update this story if they choose to respond.
