U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall is turning up the heat on his Democratic opponent Carolyn Bourdeaux as he fights for his political life in the north Atlanta suburbs.
Without mentioning Bourdeaux by name, the Lawrenceville Republican released a statement late Monday saying his 7th District opponent should let local elections officials "do their job." That came 24 hours after Bourdeaux filed a lawsuit seeking to force Gwinnett County to count a cache more than 3,000 absentee and provisional ballots it had previously rejected.
“It is disappointing that those, who in hopes of changing the election result, have gone to federal court to try to overrule our local, bipartisan officials,” Woodall said.
The comments amounted to a searing rebuke from the low-key lawmaker, who caught flak from some Republican colleagues for not more aggressively going after Bourdeaux in the contest to represent portions of Gwinnett and Forsyth counties in the U.S. House.
Bourdeaux filed a motion in federal court Sunday seeking to prevent Gwinnett County from certifying its election results in order to count roughly 900 absentee and 2,300 provisional ballots that she said were rejected for "largely trivial reasons."
"Whether intentional or not, this is voter suppression," the Georgia State University professor told reporters Monday.
She currently trails Woodall by roughly 900 votes and has indicated she’ll request a recount if the final tally leaves her within 1 percent of the four-term incumbent.
Later Monday, Secretary of State Robyn Crittenden instructed county election officials to count absentee ballots even if they lacked a voter's date of birth, as long as a person's identity could be verified. Gwinnett previously rejected nearly 1,600 absentee ballots, many of which were because voters filled out incorrect direct dates of birth or provided insufficient information on the return envelope.
The U.S. District Court where Bourdeaux filed her motion was closed for the Veterans’ Day holiday on Monday and has yet to respond to the Democrat’s request. Should it choose to, it would need to act quickly – the Gwinnett elections board has plans to meet at 2 p.m. Tuesday to certify the election results.
Attorneys for Gwinnett’s elections board argued on Monday afternoon that changing the county’s vote counting process post-Election would have a “chaotic and disruptive effect,” especially as it gears up for runoffs on Dec. 4.
The Bourdeaux campaign said “it’s clear” that all of the absentee and provisional ballots should be counted.
“We will continue to fight until every eligible vote is counted,” spokesman Jake Best said late Monday.
Forsyth County certified its election results last week.
Woodall, who is set to return to Washington on Tuesday as the House reconvenes for the fall, said he trusted the work of local election officials.
“If federal judges rather than bipartisan election boards become the arbiter of local elections, all in our community will be the lesser for it,” he said.
The Woodall-Bourdeaux race is the only Georgia congressional contest that has yet to be called after U.S. Rep. Karen Handel conceded to Democrat Lucy McBath in the nearby 6th District on Thursday.
And unlike the 6th District and the still unsettled governor's race, in which Republican Brian Kemp recently called Democrat Stacey Abrams' refusal to concede a "disgrace to democracy," Woodall has largely refrained from criticizing Bourdeaux directly.
Until this year, Woodall had not faced real competition for his suburban Atlanta seat, regularly winning reelection with upwards of 20 percentage points. But Democrats targeted the 7th District after Hillary Clinton in 2016 became the first Democrat to carry Gwinnett in decades.
Woodall's shifting tone comes in sharp contrast to the relentlessly positive style he displayed on the trail. In an interview last week, Woodall defended the less-confrontational tenor of his campaign.
“Our style is what we promised the voters when we got here: that we were going to be more about making a difference than making a point,” Woodall told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday.
“That is the style that folks can count on for me to continue,” he said. “If folks decide they want a more bombastic style, there’s certainly no shortage of people who are happy to provide that for them.”
Read more: Democrat Bourdeaux sues Gwinnett over rejected ballots in 7th District race
