Yet again, Democrat lawyer Marc Elias has appeared to mess with elections, this time working to undermine Georgia's state election laws ahead of the Peach State's U.S. Senate runoff scheduled for December 6.
Elias has a well-documented track record of fighting to undo elections, meddle in election laws, and he even played a "key role in false statements made to the media and to Congress about the Steele dossier" that advanced the Russiagate hoax," according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.
Elias has been sanctioned by courts for his conduct, and his attempts to challenge Glenn Youngkin on behalf of Terry McAuliffe in Virginia's 2021 election failed miserably, but that didn't stop him from creating "Democracy Docket" to continue his legal work of meddling in or undermining elections.
So, on November 14, Elias' Democracy Docket filed suit in Georgia on behalf of Georgia's Democrat Party, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Sen. Raphael Warnock's campaign, seeking to have a court intervene to require early voting access on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
But the lawsuit, as Turley and others have observed, is a transparent attempt to use an activist judge to make a court overrule the laws passed by state legislators — which is why Elias' role in the lawsuit is unsurprising. "One can disagree with the legislative choice on the starting date for voting but the lawsuit seeks to use the courts as a superlegislature," Turley noted in a thread on the case brought by Elias' group.
The latest lawsuit from the Warnock for Georgia campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and the Democratic Party of Georgia are asking a court to override Georgia law is a virtual invitation for judicial activism...
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 15, 2022
...One can disagree with the legislative choice on the starting date for voting but the lawsuit seeks to use the courts as a superlegislature in changing state law.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 15, 2022
Democrats, including former Obama White House Aide David Axelrod, have claimed the reason voting is not permitted on Saturday is because of a state holiday honoring Robert E. Lee on Friday. But the holiday was changed to remove its connection to Lee by former Republican Governor Nathan Deal years ago, and the attempts to blame alleged racism for the prohibition of voting on November 28 ignore the fact that the state law at play would prohibit voting that Saturday anyway due to another holiday that week — Thanksgiving.
But, as usual, facts and reality are of little import for Warnock, Elias, and Democrats who decided to sue and claim suppression of Georgians' early voting opportunities with an allegation of racism for good measure. It's just not what's happening, and if there's an issue with the runoff procedure, the state legislature can fix it — rather than a judge stepping in to rewrite state election law with less than three weeks until the runoff.
Reacting to the Democrats' lawsuit, Honest Elections Project Executive Director Jason Snead called out both Elias' attempts at meddling in Georgia election law and Democrats' race-baiting arguments. "Marc Elias is doing what he is notorious for: running to the courts to rewrite election laws on the eve of an election," Snead noted. "Unfortunately, that is exactly what is taking place in Georgia."
"Like every Marc Elias lawsuit, this latest attack on Georgia’s election laws is purely politically motivated, calculated to expand early voting in areas likely to vote Democratic," Snead continued, referencing Elias' pattern of meddling with elections on behalf of Democrats. "It has nothing to do with a defunct state holiday that once celebrated Robert E. Lee — It has everything to do with abusing court power to skew the rules of democracy for partisan gain," he explained.
"Georgia law plainly does not allow voting on Thanksgiving weekend," Snead added of the Democrats' objections to the Peach State's voting laws which, along with the updated election integrity law — also falsely smeared as racist "Jim Crow 2.0" only increased turnout and participation in the 2022 midterms. "Election workers deserve time off with their families, especially after working the long hours demanded of them for weeks during the general election," Snead said. "There is plenty of time for every Georgian to request a mail ballot or vote in person during the runoff, and Georgia has strong voting laws to ensure it."
"Using a defunct holiday to justify rewriting election laws and fuel voter suppression claims in a state that just had record-breaking voter turnout is a ludicrous new low," Snead concluded.