The Georgia State Election Board on Tuesday passed a new rule that could favor former President Donald Trump.
In a 3-2 decision, the board voted to expand county election boards’ powers to investigate vote tallies before certifying them. At a rally in Atlanta on Saturday, Trump praised the three conservative board members who went on to vote for the move—Dr. Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King—and called them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”
Meanwhile, the votes against the policy came from the body’s sole Democrat, Sara Tindall Ghazal, and John Fervier, the governor’s appointee.
Under the new rule passed Tuesday, local boards can initiate a “reasonable inquiry” when discrepancies emerge. They will also have the power to withhold certification until that inquiry is completed. It does not define the term “reasonable inquiry”, nor does it establish strict limitations on the breadth of an inquiry.
On Wednesday, the board voted 3-2 to ask state Attorney General Chris Carr to investigate the Fulton County administration, seeking to reopen an inquiry closed in May, per the Associated Press.
Newsweek has contacted Georgia’s State Election Board for comment via online form.
‘Delays Certification of Elections’
Critics of the rule have said it could unnecessarily delay the certification of elections or that it could allow board officials to refuse to certify an election if they “don’t like the results.”
“These latest changes could delay certification of elections,” Charles S. Bullock, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Georgia, told Newsweek.
However, he added that under court rules, delinquent officials can be ordered to certify results by the Monday after an election unless they find legitimate problems, meaning that the potential for “delay for the sake of delay is limited.”
“Some Republicans might think that by causing delays, they could push the process beyond the deadline for appointing presidential electors, which could prevent a Democrat who won Georgia from officially securing the victory. However, this scenario appears to be unlikely or impossible based on the court’s decision,” he said.
Nonetheless, the new rules show that “Republicans continue to have little faith in the security of GA’s electoral system,” Bullock said.
Kristin Nabers, the state director for All Voting Is Local, a voting rights advocacy organization, was less positive about the impact of the new rules, telling Atlanta Civic Circle that they make “certification dependent on a board member’s personal perception of the accuracy of the election results.”
“What one person or one [county election] board considers reasonable inquiry could differ between boards …[in] 159 counties.”
The rule “provides board members cover to not certify elections where they don’t like the results,” she said.
Georgia 2020
In 2020, President Joe Biden flipped Georgia from Trump by 11,779 votes, or 0.24 percent of the 5 million ballots cast, making the latter the first Republican to lose the state in decades. The result was confirmed by a manual count but Trump and others later made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the state.
The claims led to numerous lawsuits challenging the election results in Georgia by the former president and his allies—all of which were dismissed due to lack of evidence or legal standing.
In August 2023, Trump was indicted on criminal charges including racketeering and conspiracy over the election results in Fulton County. While the 2024 Republican presidential nominee has pleaded not guilty, the case against him remains pending.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s Republican officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp, defended the integrity of the election, stating that there was no evidence of widespread fraud that could have altered the outcome.
Before 2020, Georgia had not historically had issues certifying its votes, but the new rules could change that.
‘Unprecedented’
“All of this is really unprecedented,” Andrea Young, the director of ACLU Georgia, told Atlanta Civic Circle. “We’ve never seen this kind of activity in the State Board of Elections.”
“These are MAGA certification rules,” Democratic state representative Sam Park said, according to The Guardian.
Republican state election board officials have defended the rules, with board member Johnston saying after the vote that if elections are “conducted fairly and legally and accurately, most of the time, they are certified.”
“So it’s not the end of the world,” she said of the rule, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re not asking the board to do a full election audit or a forensic audit. We’re just asking for a reasonable inquiry.”
Cobb County Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs defended the rules to the State Election Board in July. “We must make every effort to ensure every vote is counted right the first time,” she said.
“I don’t understand why we don’t want more security in our procedures.”
The new rule will officially take effect in 20 days but can be challenged in court.
Young told Atlanta Civic Circle the Georgia ACLU is “exploring options” for legal challenges to the new rule.
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