Lawsuit seeks to reopen voter registration in Georgia after Hurricane Helene

ATLANTA (AP) — Three voting rights groups are asking a federal judge to order the state of Georgia to reopen voter registration for November's elections due to Hurricane Helene.

The groups argue in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Atlanta that damage and disruptions from Hurricane Helene unfairly deprived people of the opportunity to register last week, in advance of the state's Monday registration deadline.

The lawsuit filed by the Georgia conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda and the New Georgia Project seeks to have registration reopened through Oct. 14. All three groups say they had to cancel voter registration activities last week. Historically, there's a spike in Georgia voter registrations just before the deadline, the plaintiffs said.

“Absent action by this court, the likely thousands of voters who could not register while power was down, roads were impassible and county election and post offices were closed will be unfairly disenfranchised, an injury that can never be undone,” the plaintiffs wrote in court papers seeking a temporary restraining order reopening registration from U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross.

The judge scheduled a Wednesday hearing on the request.

A spokesperson for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who oversees statewide voter rolls, declined to comment Tuesday, saying the office doesn't talk about pending lawsuits.

Georgia has 8.2 million registered voters, according to online records from Raffensperger's office. But with Georgia having been decided by only 12,000 votes in 2020, a few thousand votes could make a difference in whether Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris wins the state's 16 electoral votes. A number of issues related to elections in Georgia are already being litigated.

The lawsuit says the storm kept people with driver's licenses from registering online because of widespread power and internet outages in the eastern half of the state, and kept people from registering in person because at least 37 county election offices were closed for parts of last week. The lawsuit also notes that mail pickup and delivery was suspended in 27 counties, including Augusta, Savannah, Statesboro, Dublin and Vidalia.

The suit notes that a court in South Carolina extended that state's registration deadline after Helene and that courts in Georgia and Florida extended registration deadlines after 2016's Hurricane Matthew. In North Carolina, which was more heavily impacted by Hurricane Helene, the registration deadline isn't until Friday. Voters there can also register and cast a ballot simultaneously during the state's early in-person voting period, which runs from Oct. 17 through Nov. 2.

The Georgia plaintiffs argue that the shutdown of voter registration violates their rights under the First Amendment and 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection and due process to all citizens. They also say the shutdown violates a provision of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act that requires states to accept voter registrations submitted or mailed up to 30 days before an election.

At least 40 advocacy groups asked Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger to extend the registration deadline in affected counties before the Georgia lawsuit was filed.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund also sent a similar letter to Florida officials, including Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd.