The American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued a Georgia county on Friday, over allegations that it failed to mail out approximately 3,000 absentee ballots by the requested deadline.

Georgia state law allows voters to request absentee ballots up to 11 days before the election, but they must be returned by Election Day. In the lawsuit, civil rights groups asked a judge to extend the voting deadline by three days, to Nov. 8.

Cobb County said it did not anticipate as many requests for absentee ballots this year, after requests increased to 750 per day in the last week. according to Reuters. There were also 985 applications submitted on the October 25 deadline alone.

“Unfortunately, we were not prepared for the increase in requests and lacked the equipment necessary to process ballots quickly,” Cobb County Board of Elections Chairwoman Tori Silas told the outlet.

County officials also said that as of Wednesday, ballots had not yet been sent out. But the county is working with postal and delivery companies to speed up voting and get a quick turnaround.

“As Election Day approaches, these voters still do not have their absentee ballot,” the ACLU said in a statement. “Without immediate action, these voters may be denied their constitutional right to vote.”

Cobb County is a racially diverse county in Atlanta’s northern suburbs and could be a crucial swing for Democrats. More than 3.8 million Georgia residents have voted so far, representing more than half of the state’s population. At least 23,000 of those votes were absentee.

Misty Severi is a nightly news reporter for Just The News. Can follow her on x for greater coverage.