Georgia election leaders are pushing back on claims by prominent Democrats that the state is cutting out a Saturday of early voting for the December U.S. Senate runoff because of a holiday that once honored Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Early voting for the December 6, runoff between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock starts on Monday, November 28 and ends that Friday, meaning there will be no Saturday early voting. Election officials initially thought they could have early voting on Saturday, November 26, but a 2016 state law – passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support – prohibits voting on the Saturday after a Thursday or a Friday holiday.

The most prominent holiday preventing early voting on that Saturday is Thanksgiving, which is on Thursday, November 24. But in Georgia, the Friday after Thanksgiving is also a state holiday. For decades, that holiday commemorated Lee’s birthday, but in 2015 Republican governor Nathan Deal ended the holiday’s controversial affiliation with the Confederate leader.

Prominent Democrats are now alleging that the early voting is prohibited because of the former Lee holiday, while conveniently ignoring the Thanksgiving holiday.

“This is really egregious. Dropping a day of early voting before the Georgia runoff because of a holiday originally meant to honor Robert E. Lee!” former Barack Obama senior advisor David Axelrod tweeted on Tuesday. He linked to a New York Times story that claimed in the lead that the holiday that once honored Lee could take away a day of early voting, also ignoring the role of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms also ignored the role of Thanksgiving when she tweeted on Monday, “Sooo…let me get this right….The holiday, formerly known as Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Birthday, prohibits early voting on a Saturday during the Senate runoff in Georgia? Oh, ok….#Vote.”

Longtime congressional reporter Jamie Dupree weighed in. “It does seem a little wacky that a Confederate holiday in Georgia gets in the way of early voting for the Senate runoff on Dec. 6.”

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s deputy secretary of state, called the claims “disinformation,” and asked for corrections. “Thanksgiving is the reason for no Saturday voting. Please correct your tweet,” he tweeted in reply to Axelrod.

“The law says a Thursday or Friday holiday would not allow a Saturday vote,” he tweeted in reply to Lance Bottoms. “I’m going to assume someone didn’t tell you the truth about the law because I’m sure you wouldn’t intentionally mislead folks.”

The 2016 law in question was a cleanup bill that addressed several aspects of Georgia elections law, including establishing some qualifying dates, filing deadlines, and adding a new definition of “campaign materials.” It also prohibited early voting on a Saturday if it is a holiday, or on a Saturday that follows a holiday on a Thursday or Friday, or precedes a holiday on Sunday or Monday, according to the text of the bill. The bill easily passed both the Georgia House and Senate with bipartisan support, including from then state representative Stacey Abrams.

In an interview with National Review, Sterling said the purpose of the prohibition on Saturday voting immediately after or before a holiday had to do with logistics.

“It’s hard to get poll workers,” he said. “They’re all with their families.”

Sterling said he initially believed that voting the Saturday after Thanksgiving would be allowed, and he said as much while announcing the runoff earlier this month. “We all assumed we could,” he said. “I was the one who went on TV and said it. And I was wrong.”

He said it was a Democratic lawyer who pointed out the provision in the 2016 law prohibiting the Saturday voting. Sterling said he believes the Democrats alleging that the former Lee holiday is the reason why there won’t be early voting on Saturday are looking to cast doubt on the fairness of the vote, “but also, gin up the base to get them out. ‘They’re suppressing you. They’re using Robert E. Lee to suppress you.’ That is a time-tested thing for them.”

The debate over voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving became a factor this year after Georgia Republicans passed an election bill in 2021 that shortened the window for runoff elections from nine weeks to four. Sterling said it is simply the quirk of the calendar – including the latest possible date for the general election – that led to the significance of the Saturday after Thanksgiving. “I love the fact that they think there are these conniving legislators looking at calendars thinking these things out, not knowing there is going to be a runoff,” he said, adding, “It’s not how any of this works.”

On Tuesday, Warnock signed onto a lawsuit with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party challenging the state’s rule limiting Saturday early voting. He argued that election officials were misinterpreting the law, which doesn’t specifically mention runoff elections.

“I think it’s a disservice to the people of Georgia,” he said, according to a report in the New York Times. “And since we’re not hamstrung by the law, as we interpret it, people ought to have the ability to exercise their voting rights.”

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defended the law, and criticized Warnock and his allies for “seeking to change Georgia law right before an election based on their political preferences,” according to the Times.