Heimel v. Gregg

On July 19, the Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration dismissed more than 200 voter eligibility challenges submitted by an individual named Victoria Cruz. Another Georgia resident named Suzannah Heimel was aggrieved by the Board’s decision and demanded that the Board hold hearings on the challenges and stop registering any more voters until it purged more voters from the rolls. She then filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Oconee County seeking a writ of mandamus to force the Board to bypass the challenge hearings altogether and instead require all of the challenged electors to vote provisional ballots.

On behalf of Common Cause Georgia and an individual named Susan Noakes, the ACLU, along with ACLU of Georgia, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the law firm, Akerman LLP, moved to intervene in the case on the side of the Board and filed a proposed motion to dismiss, arguing that the plaintiff’s requested relief was not authorized by Georgia law. We also filed cross-claims against the Board on behalf of Ms. Noakes seeking an emergency injunction to prevent the Board from violating state law by adjudicating other voter challenges within 45 days of an election.

The court granted our motion to intervene and on October 7, the court granted our motion to dismiss the petition for a writ of mandamus from the bench, preventing hundreds of voters from being illegally disenfranchised on the eve of the election. The court will hear arguments on our cross-claims on October 21.