The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that absentee ballots that were mailed late to voters in Cobb County will only be counted if they arrive back to election officials by Election Day, sparking GOP leadership to take a victory lap. 

“HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia. Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline. We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court,” RNC chair Michael Whatley posted to X on Monday. 

“We just got word that we WON the case. Election Day is Election Day – not the week after. We will keep fighting, keep winning, and keep sharing updates,” he added. 

Last week, it was revealed that about 3,000 absentee ballots were mailed late to voters in Cobb County, with just days to spare ahead of Election Day. A county judge ruled on Nov. 1 that the Cobb County Board of Elections could count the ballots if they arrived by 5 p.m. Nov. 8, and were postmarked by 7 p.m. Nov. 5.

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On Monday, the state’s Supreme Court granted an emergency motion ruling that ballots will only be counted if they are received by 7 p.m. Tuesday. 

Voters cast their ballots during the last day of early voting in Gwinnett County, Georgia, on Nov. 1, 2024. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Consistent with OCGA § 21-2-386, the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration (the ‘Board’) may count only those absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024.” the order reads. 

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The ruling comes after the ACLU, ACLU of Georgia, and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit last week regarding roughly 3,000 voters in Cobb County who did not receive absentee ballots. A Superior Court judge subsequently ordered election officials to overnight mail the delayed absentee ballots, and ruled that the ballots should be counted if they are received by Nov. 8. 

The ACLU lamented the state Supreme Court ruling on Monday, and urged “all affected voters to prioritize voting in person on Election Day, November 5, 2024, if at all possible.”

Former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, Nov. 4, 2024. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

“This afternoon, the Georgia Supreme Court denied relief for Cobb County voters who requested absentee ballots on time but did not receive them on time due to the county’s failure to mail them promptly. The lower court had ruled that an extension of the absentee receipt deadline was necessary in order to protect these voters’ constitutional right to vote, but the Georgia Supreme Court stayed that ruling, removing the relief that the lower court had ordered. The November 8 extension deadline that the earlier order had issued is no longer in effect,” the ACLU said in a statement. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, shared some political advice for Vice President Harris during a rally in Atlanta on Monday.

“Remember, her whole argument of her campaign is that she doesn’t even know who Joe Biden is, even though she’s the sitting vice president. And ‘The View’ host asked her, ‘What would you have done differently over the last four years? Would you have done anything differently than Joe Biden?’ And Kamala Harris says, ‘Nothing comes to mind,’” Vance said.

“The Harris-Walz slogan could be ‘Nothing comes to mind.’”

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Vance was referencing the vice president’s recent interview with ABC’s “The View” where she conceded she would not have done much differently than President Biden has during their administration so far.

Harris said during the sit-down last month, “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact, the work that we have done.”

The Trump campaign and its allies immediately pounced on the clip as proof of their warnings that Harris would continue Biden’s most unpopular progressive policies if she wins the White House after Election Day on Nov. 5.

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Trump allies have been working to tie Harris closely to President Biden’s unpopular policies.

Speaking to voters in deep-blue Atlanta the night before, Vance also used the quote to accuse Harris of a lack of clear policy positions.

“Think about this, Kamala. What would you do to fix the broken policies to make groceries and housing more affordable? ‘Nothing comes to mind.’ Kamala Harris, what would you do to secure that southern border? ‘Nothing comes to mind,’” Vance said. “That’s what Kamala Harris’s campaign slogan could be.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for a response.

Both the Trump and Harris campaigns have detailed policy platforms available on their websites. Harris’ says relatively little about the border, though she has shown support for the bipartisan border deal that collapsed against Republican opposition this year.

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More than 4 million people have already voted in Georgia. (Megan Varner/Washington Post)

Vance’s 11th-hour appeal to Georgia voters comes at the end of an election cycle where both campaigns poured enormous time and resources into the Peach State.

Biden won the traditionally red state by less than 1% in 2020. Democrats also made gains there in 2022, cementing its status as a key battleground.

More than 4 million Georgia voters have already cast ballots going into Election Day, roughly 55.5% of the state’s active voters.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is claiming that “voter suppression” is occurring in Georgia despite record turnout in the Peach State. 

During Friday’s installment of “CNN News Central,” co-anchor Kate Bolduan asked Abrams what she believes is driving the surge in early voting. 

“While we are excited about who is showing up, we have to understand that turnout does not mean there is not voter suppression activity,” Abrams replied. 

She suggested that one of the reasons for long early voting lines is because residents can no longer use the “easier” method of voting by mail. 

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“People who are disabled, people who have lost their homes are facing harder times casting their ballots, but they refuse to be silenced. What we are excited about is that here in the state of Georgia, despite the government making it harder to cast your ballot, people are willing to fight to make it happen anyway,” Abrams continued.

Senate Bill 202, which was adopted by the Georgia General assembly in 2021, made several changes to absentee ballots. Prior to its passage, signature verification was the primary means of checking voter identity, according to the Fulton County website.

Absentee ballots could also be requested up until the Friday before the election.

The new method stipulates that Georgia voters provide their Driver’s License number or other forms of voter ID and must request their ballot at least 11 days before the election.

“Once again, Stacey Abrams is lying about Georgia’s elections, and over three million voters who have already voted know not to take her seriously,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “She’s cost the state millions and it’s time for her to get real: Georgia has the leads the nation in voter accessibility and convenience and we run the most secure elections in the country.”

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Rural counties won by former President Trump in 2020 have so far outpaced blue strongholds in percentage of population voting early in the state of Georgia.  (Getty Images)

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Georgia voters have already shattered multiple turnout records, but that did little to temper Democratic critics of the new rules for the 2024 presidential cycle put in place by the state’s GOP officials.

“I was just in Georgia. You know they passed a law that makes it illegal to give people food and water for standing in line to vote?” Vice President Kamala Harris told a rally crowd in Michigan earlier this week. “The hypocrisy abounds. Whatever happened to ‘love thy neighbor,’ right?”

Meanwhile, President Biden called Georgia’s election security laws “Jim Crow 2.0” in 2022.

Georgia’s Republican-majority legislature passed several laws since 2020 to increase security around the voting process after the Peach State was thrust under scrutiny in the previous presidential race.

Among them were measures to expand the ability to challenge voter eligibility, a rule limiting ballot drop boxes based on population size and, perhaps most notably, a measure forbidding political organizations from handing out food and drinks to voters waiting in line within a certain distance from a polling place.

Election workers are, however, permitted to set up self-serve water stations.

Editor’s Note: This piece has been updated with a quote from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.