Circular “Ripeness / Mootness” Trap – Pre-Election Claims Premature; Post-Certification Claims Moot (GA)

[Established Fact – Dismissals before and after election on procedural grounds] Georgia courts dismissed pre-election challenges to expanded absentee and drop-box procedures as “not yet ripe” because the challenged election had not yet occurred. After the election, courts dismissed the same or analogous challenges on mootness grounds because certification had occurred. This bidirectional procedural barrier – deployed at opposite ends of the election timeline – had the combined effect of ensuring no Georgia court ever adjudicated the constitutionality of these election procedures on the merits. Justice Rebecca Grassl Bradley of the Wisconsin Supreme Court – whose concurrent state applied identical reasoning – described this pattern in her Teigen concurrence as allowing “equity” to override mandatory statutory requirements.