“Frivolous mass pre-election challenges to voter eligibility have largely emerged as a result of efforts to stoke fear about false claims of voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 election,” Protect Democracy wrote in a recent report. In some cases, those challenges have resulted in real consequences.

A challenge against 850 voters in Bryan County was dismissed Thursday after the challenger failed to attend the hearing. Voters piled into the Richmond Hill Administrative Complex to submit evidence of their qualifications individually.