Cobb resident to receive new absentee ballot, drops lawsuit
A Marietta voter has agreed to drop the lawsuit he filed against the Cobb County elections director and the county board of elections over his delayed absentee ballot now that the county has agreed to send him a new ballot by express delivery.
Marietta resident Michael Olaribigbe filed the lawsuit on Tuesday alleging that he was among nearly 2,900 people in Cobb County who did not receive an absentee ballot as requested. The suit pointed the finger at the New York-based vendor the county hired to handle the task.
It focused on ballots requested by Cobb voters from Oct. 6 to Oct. 15 and alleged that the vendor had taken as long as two weeks to complete the mailings.
State law requires such ballots to be mailed within three days.
In a statement, Cobb disputed the scope of the problem but acknowledged there were “some delays in ballot delivery” by the vendor.
“This delay affected a limited set of voters and we were already working on solutions to this problem before any lawsuit was filed,” the county said in a statement.
The county said impacted voters could contact Cobb Elections to request a new absentee ballot that would be delivered by express mail with prepaid return express delivery.