Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Image via Screengrab / PBS.
Early Thursday morning, September 10, the news broke that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has "joined a bipartisan group of elected officials urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the Trump administration's plans to use the U.S. Postal Service to vet voters for the November election," according to Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) reporters David Wickert and Caleb Groves.
Wickert and Groves report, "In a brief filed with the court, 38 current and former state and local officials from 10 states took no position on the legality of Trump's plan to create a national database of registered voters and to instruct the Postal Service to deliver absentee ballots only to people who appear on the list. But they said it's too late to implement the plan this year, given that one state has already begun issuing ballots and others will follow shortly."
Meanwhile, reporter Scott Flynn of WSTV reports, "In a court brief, 38 current and former election officials from 10 states argued that there is not enough time to implement the Trump administration's proposed U.S. Postal Service voter verification plan without creating problems for voters and election workers. The officials did not take a position on whether the plan is legal. Instead, they argued that election offices are already preparing for November and do not have sufficient time to test and implement the changes."
According to Wickert and Groves in AJC, "The officials said the work they would need to do to ensure that the process goes smoothly 'cannot be responsibly accomplished in the time that remains in a manner that ensures both that the rule is implemented correctly and other crucial preparations do not fall by the wayside. Attempting to implement the rule now will almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays and confusion for both voters and election officials,' the officials argued."
Wickert and Groves add, "Raffensperger was joined in the brief by more than a dozen current and former local and state election officials in Georgia. Numerous officials from other states — many of them controlled by Republicans — also joined the brief, prepared by two Atlanta attorneys. Raffensperger and the other Republicans, including the Republican secretaries of state of Kansas, Kentucky and North Dakota, are a noteworthy addition to the state officials who have urged courts to block Trump’s moves to dictate the rules for the November election. Numerous Democratic officials across the country have taken the lead so far."