Judge dismisses Dolezal suit over Georgia election reporting center access

A Fulton County judge has shut down Greg Dolezal’s challenge to Georgia’s election-night reporting center, a ruling that keeps the state’s Atlanta operations room closed to the credentialed observers Dolezal wanted inside. For Forsyth County voters, the decision leaves election-night reporting in the hands of county officials, not the state lawmakers and poll watchers seeking a front-row seat to the process.

Dolezal, a Forsyth County state senator running for lieutenant governor, joined two other Republicans in filing the lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court in mid-May 2026, just ahead of the May 19 Georgia primary. The case asked the court to force Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office to admit credentialed poll watchers and members of the Georgia State Election Board into the election-night reporting center, where officials receive and publish unofficial statewide totals from all 159 counties.

State officials argued the demand had no legal footing. Raffensperger’s attorneys said there is no legal right for board members or other outside observers to be inside the reporting center. They also said the center does not conduct polling, voting or vote tabulation. Those jobs stay at the county level, including in places like Forsyth County, while the state center collects and posts the unofficial totals once counties send them in.

The dispute briefly produced an emergency restraining order before the same effort was voided. A Fulton County judge later ruled that order legally and procedurally void, effectively ending the immediate push to open the center for future elections. That left Dolezal’s case without the emergency relief he had sought as the primary approached.

The fight became one of the sharper Georgia election battles of 2026, tied to Republican demands for greater transparency in election administration and broader questions about who gets access to the state’s election headquarters in Atlanta. Raffensperger dismissed the lawsuit as a “desperate search for press attention and votes,” while Dolezal framed it as a basic openness issue, saying, “Transparency should not be controversial.”

For Forsyth County residents, the practical effect is straightforward: county election workers will continue handling the actual casting and counting, while the state’s reporting center remains a place for receiving and publishing unofficial totals, not for public observation inside the room. The ruling also signals that future attempts to force access to Georgia’s election operations will face a steep legal fight unless lawmakers change the rules.