Georgia Republicans smacked down a second time in court over demand to block Saturday voting

On Monday, Democratic voting rights attorney Marc Elias announced that a Georgia appeals court has denied a motion by Republican officials in Georgia to reverse a lower court decision ordering the state to allow counties to hold Saturday early voting for the upcoming Senate runoff in December.

Republicans had originally claimed ahead of the election that early voting on Saturday would be allowed. However, they subsequently reversed this position and claimed it would not be allowed, because it would conflict with a November state holiday.

That state holiday replaced one that honored Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who was actually born in January.

But in a ruling two days ago, Fulton Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox ruled in favor of a lawsuit by Democratic Sen. Rev Raphael Warnock's campaign and the Democratic Party of Georgia, finding that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was misapplying a newly passed election law. Raffensperger's office had immediately vowed to appeal that ruling.

That law in question, passed by Republicans in the wake of President Joe Biden's 2020 victory in Georgia and the double-barrel Senate runoff victories of Democratic Senate candidates Warnock and Jon Ossoff, was a matter of great controversy, compared by some political analysts to a modern Jim Crow law designed to weaken Black voting power and prevent further Democratic victories in the state. In addition to shortening the runoff, the law included another controversial provision banning people from giving water to voters standing in line. Republicans have vehemently denied the law is intended for voter suppression.

The runoff in December will pit Warnock against Trump-backed former NFL star Herschel Walker, who became a lighting rod for criticism amid scandals that he paid for secret abortions and is accused of domestic violence against his family.