Georgia judge says voters can hand in mail ballots in rejection of GOP lawsuit

Five other Democratic-leaning counties in the state also announced that county offices would be open over the weekend. 

But state law also states that voters can hand in mail ballots until the polls close on Tuesday night. 

GOP lawyer Alex Kaufman argued in a Saturday emergency hearing that while it's OK to mail absentee ballots, they shouldn't be hand-delivered after early voting ends, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer rejected all of his arguments. 

"I find that it is not a violation of those two code sections for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots," Farmer said.

A Fulton County spokesperson said on Saturday afternoon that only a couple dozen ballots had been returned to the four open county offices. 

Former President Trump narrowly lost Georgia, a usually reliably Republican state, to President Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020, and afterward Trump made unsubstantiated accusations of fraud in Fulton County.

Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been actively campaigning in the state, now considered a battleground. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.