Georgia Board Grants Local Officials New Power Over
Certifying Elections
Across
the country, conservative organizations and allies of former President Donald
J. Trump have sought to grant local election officials more authority over the
certification process.
The new rule’s language implies that local election officials have a
level of discretion in the certification process, a suggestion that runs
counter to decades of settled Georgia law.
Aug. 6, 2024
The
Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board approved on Tuesday a
measure that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of
a county’s election results, creating the potential for another disputed and
contentious post-election period in November.
The
new rule states that before certifying results, local officials may conduct
“reasonable inquiry” that “the results are a true and accurate accounting of
all votes cast in that election.”
Though
seemingly innocuous, the language implies that local election officials are
awarded a level of discretion in the certification process, a suggestion that
runs counter to decades of settled Georgia law delineating how results are
officially certified. State law dictates that officials “shall” certify an
election, making the process effectively ministerial; disputes over alleged
fraud or major errors are typically left to recounts and courts.
The decision by the board worried Democrats and
voting-rights advocates that the process could be weaponized if former
President Donald J. Trump lost in November.
Across
the country, conservative organizations and allies of Mr. Trump have sought to
create new laws or win court rulings granting local officials more authority
over the certification process. In Arizona, conservatives are targeting the
state’s election manual with several lawsuits. In Nevada, an official in the
state’s second-largest county refused to certify a recent election, setting up
a legal test at the State Supreme Court.
And
in Georgia, even before the state election board’s meeting on Tuesday, allies
of Mr. Trump were seeking a similar resolution in the courts. In May, the
America First Policy Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of a member of the
Fulton County, Ga., election board, arguing that she had the discretion to
refuse certification and conduct an investigation because, as part of her oath,
she had sworn to “prevent fraud, deceit and abuse.”
The
legal effort to remake election certification has been accompanied by a surge
in local officials’ voting against certification, despite state and federal law
dictating differently. Since the 2020 election, members of state and local
boards have voted against certification more than 20 times across eight states,
according to a list compiled by Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan group that
tracks antidemocratic trends in the United States.
Republicans
on the Georgia board who voted in favor of the new rule on Tuesday said it was
a reasonable step to ensure accuracy.
“We’re not asking for a full election audit,” said Janice
Johnston, one of four Republican board members, during Tuesday’s meeting in
Atlanta. “We’re just asking for a reasonable inquiry.”
But
John Fervier, the Republican chair of the board, said he could not support such
a broad rule and argued for specific “guardrails.”
Democrats,
election officials and voting rights groups have denounced what they
characterize as an effort to destabilize the certification process, claiming it
would invite chaos into elections, undermining trust and creating a framework
for subversion.
“Inconsistencies
in certification could tie up both the counties and the state in expensive and
time-consuming litigation,” Kristin Nabers, the Georgia state director for All
Voting Is Local Action, a voting rights group, said during the election board meeting.
“This could result not only in counties missing the certification deadline but
also in undermining public trust and confidence in our elections.”
Fears
are also growing that the Georgia State Election Board, which is made up of
four Republicans and one Democrat, is under increasingly partisan pressure. The
Georgia Republican Party has proposed new rules and made other suggestions to
the board, which were first reported by The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.
At a campaign rally on Saturday, Mr. Trump called out the
three Republican members of the board by name. “I don’t know if you’ve heard,
but the Georgia State Election Board is in a very positive way,” Mr. Trump told
the crowd to loud applause. Characterizing the Republican members as “on fire,”
he said they were “three pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and
victory.”
Mr.
Trump’s comments were brought up repeatedly at Tuesday’s meeting, as several
opponents of the new rule implored the board members to be nonpartisan stewards
of Georgia’s elections.
Democrats
in the State Legislature argued at a news conference that the new measure was
most likely illegal.
“Trump-backed
state election board members,” State Representative Sam Park, a Democrat, said,
“want to change our election rules to give power to local elections officials
to halt the counting of votes and slow down or refuse certification if they say
there are any irregularities, making the certification of election results
discretionary.”
“These certification rules,” he said, “directly conflict
with Georgia law, which states in multiple places that local election board
officials shall perform their duties — meaning their duties are mandatory, not
discretionary.”
Nick Corasaniti is a Times reporter covering national politics, with a focus on
voting and elections. More
about Nick Corasaniti