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 upcomin