Voters in Georgia are waiting more than 30 days to receive their absentee ballots, according to a press release by the ACLU.
The organization points to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s decision to use an Arizona vendor to process absentee ballot applications, print and mail them back 1,800 miles across the country.
Under Secretary Raffensperger, Georgia voters who wished to vote absentee were required to submit an application and wait for their ballots.
The ACLU says the month-long waiting period as a result of the state using a vendor so far away is “unacceptable,” and that “by law, elections officials are required to process absentee ballot applications within three days.”
According to Savannah Now, 1.3 million absentee ballots were applied for by October 1, five times higher than the amount in 2016.
With early voting in Georgia having started October 12, some voters are not waiting for their ballots to come. Instead they are joining the millions of Georgia voters at polling sites around the state.
The ACLU is recommending the state to require the Arizona ballot vendor to overnight the ballots to voters to decrease waiting times. This push for equity in voting comes amid nationwide court proceedings that are changing rules in some states less than a week until Election Day.
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