Bourdeaux files lawsuit to delay Gwinnett County's election certification

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - The Democratic candidate for Georgia's 7th District has filed an emergency motion to delay Gwinnett County from certifying the results of last week's election.

In their complaint, the Carolyn Bourdeaux for Congress campaign argued that Gwinnett County's rejected 1,000 absentee ballots for "trivial reasons," and violated federal law.

Bourdeaux trails Republican Rob Woodall by 901 votes as of Monday around noon. 

"Per the county election officials current policies, reasons for the rejections include missing and incorrect information about voters’ address and birth year," the campaign said in a statement. "However, these voters were already determined to be eligible to vote when they registered, leaving no question as to the voter’s qualification or identity."

Bourdeaux says many ballots were rejected because wrong information or dates were placed on the outside yellow envelope, even though the information is correct on the inside. She said 25 percent of the population of the 7th Congressional District are immigrants who may or may not have understood the small print on the envelope. The democratic candidate says she is also concerned about the 2300 provisional ballots in Gwinnett, 1400 she estimated were in the 7th.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Bourdeaux said Gwinnett County threw out almost one in 10 absentee ballots – an act she called "disenfranchising."

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According to Georgia's Secretary of State's Office, Bourdeaux is trailing by incumbent Republican Rep. Rob Woodall by around 900 votes.

"We are taking this legal action to ensure that every eligible vote is counted in this election. We will not stop fighting until that goal is accomplished," Bourdeaux insisted.

Gwinnett Election Officials were Sued over the same issue before the election by a group of civil and voting rights groups.  Bourdeaux effectively joins their lawsuit.

Gwinnett has been the subject of much scrutiny and criticism as it relates to voter access, including downed machines for at least 4 hours at four different precincts on Election Day.

RELATED: Abrams campaign files federal lawsuit to make sure votes are counted in Georgia Governor's race

Bourdeaux's lawsuit comes close the same day Stacey Abrams' campaign went to federal court to ask a judge to delay vote certifications by one day until Wednesday, also asking a judge to require that officials count any votes that were rejected improperly, specifically absentee and provisional ballots.

The Woodall Campaign did not return email and phone calls Monday.