Judge Orders Ga. Officials To Accept ‘Signature Mismatches’ On Absentee Ballots

Statewide, there have been 2,081 rejections of mail-in ballots so far.

John Bazemore / Associated Press

A federal judge in Atlanta issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday for elections officials to accept ballots and ballot applications with signatures that don’t match what voters have on file.

U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May issued the order for the Secretary of State’s office to notify all elections officials of this order after hearing arguments in two different lawsuits Tuesday afternoon.

The cases were filed against Secretary of State Brian Kemp and the Gwinnett County Board of Registrations and Elections. The defendants argued that signature mismatch rejections were rare and only 0.017 percent of all accepted absentee ballots in 2016 were rejected on that basis.