Certain absentee ballots in one Georgia county will be counted if they're received late

ATLANTA — Certain voters in Georgia's third-largest county who received their absentee ballots late will have their votes counted as long as their ballots were postmarked by Election Day and are received by Friday.

Cobb County, just north of Atlanta, didn't mail out absentee ballots to some 3,400 voters who had requested them until late last week. Georgia law says absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls on Election Day. But a judge in a lower court ruled late last week that the ballots at issue could be counted if they're received by this Friday, three days after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday.

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday issued an order staying that ruling and instructing county election officials to notify the affected voters that their ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day. The high court on Wednesday, the day after the elections, asked the parties whether they were still interested in pursuing the appeal.

The Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party, which had appealed the lower court ruling, asked to withdraw the appeal. The high court granted that request and lifted the stay, restoring the lower court's ruling.

That means that ballots from affected voters will be included in the county's official election results if they were postmarked by Tuesday and are received by 5 p.m. Friday.