Georgia Republicans, Trump campaign file lawsuit to halt counties ‘illegally accepting’ early voting ballots

Georgia Republicans and former President Trump’s campaign say that they are continuing to take legal action against ‘coordinated efforts’ by Democrat-heavy counties to accept ballots after the early voting period ended. 

A statement from the Georgia Republican Party, which was obtained by FOX Business on Sunday, detailed the party’s latest efforts to stop counties from counting ballots that were hand-delivered over the weekend. 

The lawsuit names seven counties: Clayton County, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fulton, Chatham and Athens-Clarke. Fulton County houses the capital of the state, Atlanta.

In the letter, chairman Josh McKoon claimed that these counties were ‘illegally accept[ing] ballots this weekend AFTER the end of early voting on Friday.’

‘The Georgia Republican Party, in conjunction with the RNC have filed suit in federal court to halt the counting of these ballots,’ McKoon wrote. ‘At minimum, we want to sequester the ballots that were submitted without proper oversight of our election observers.’

‘Additionally, we have requested Georgia’s Secretary of State and Attorney General get involved to resolve this matter and find answers to the burning questions we all have,’ he added.

McKoon said that the Republican Party intends to find out how a 501c3 organization ‘knew to inform voters within 15 minutes of early voting closure that six Democrat[ic] counties would be extending their weekend hours.’

‘Why didn’t these six counties inform the state board of elections, their county board of elections, the Secretary of State, or their local governments about their plans to essentially extend early voting?’ the letter asked. ‘Who gave the order to Fulton and Chatham County officials to bar poll observers from monitoring the process? Why did they do this?’

McKoon concluded the update by urging Georgia Republicans to ‘keep our foot on the gas.’

‘We will keep the public informed all along the way,’ the Republican said. ‘However, this doesn’t change our overall mission. We MUST keep our foot on the gas and turn out voters on Tuesday like our lives depend on it. Because it does.’

The Trump campaign released a statement on Sunday identifying themselves as one of the suit’s plaintiffs.

‘At the last minute several heavily Democrat counties announced they would open their offices over the weekend to receive mail ballots,’ the campaign said in a statement. ‘This is illegal, so we immediately filed a state court lawsuit. In a win for election integrity, the counties retreated from plans to keep drop boxes open over the weekend, but we continue to fight the illegal re-opening of the centers in state and federal court.’

‘This is a clear, partisan violation of the law intended to boost Democrat efforts in Georgia,’ the campaign’s statement added. ‘With just two days until our country’s most important election, it is critical for officials to follow the law and run the election in a fair and transparent manner.’

The new legal action comes a day after a similar lawsuit brought by Republicans was struck down. On Saturday, a judge in Fulton County dismissed a lawsuit about normally-closed offices allowing voters to hand in their ballots over the weekend.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer had rejected all arguments presented by GOP attorney Alex Kaufman, who claimed that absentee ballots should not be hand-delivered and accepted after the early voting period ends.

‘I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots,’ the judge claimed.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Georgia Republican Party for additional comment.

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.