Dems take GA’s MAGA election board to court over rule that could 'create chaos and aid Trump'

01 October 2024

The Georgia State Board of Elections is trying to ram through a new rule that could severely impact the Peach State's ability to certify its election on time. Now, Democrats are in court challenging it.

In September, the election board — which has a Republican majority that former President Donald Trump has publicly praised at his campaign rallies — passed a rule demanding that poll workers hand-count ballots. Opponents argued that in particularly populous areas like Fulton County, this would effectively delay the certification of the election in order to count all of the ballots cast in the Atlanta Metro area.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Democratic National Committee is now asking Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney to declare the rule invalid. Reporter Jan Wolfe wrote that the rule has been criticized for its potential to "create chaos and aid Trump" if it's still in place on November 5.

"The uncertainty that the challenged rules inject into the certification process creates a risk that the county board of elections might not certify," Democratic attorney Kurt Kastorf said Tuesday.

Republican National Committee lawyer Baxter Drennon countered that the new rule was necessary in order to ensure all voters' ballots are counted. He added that the rule was "not changing the law."

“We are reinforcing — or re-emphasizing might be the best way to describe it — the law that was in place before," Drennon said.

Ever since Trump lost the Peach State in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes, the state's Republican-dominated legislature has made numerous changes to state election law panned by Democrats as voter disenfranchisement. And Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger rolled out a new website that allows anyone to cancel a voter's registration last month.

The new Republicans on Georgia's State Election Board — Janice Johnston, Rick Jaffares and Janelle King — may have overstepped their authority in passing the hand-count rule. That's according to the office of Georgia Republican Attorney General Christopher Carr, who pointed out that there is no statutory authority for the board to supersede existing law.

"There are thus no provisions in the statutes cited in support of these proposed rules that permit counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level prior to delivery to the election superintendent for tabulation," read a September memo from Georgia senior assistant attorney general Elizabeth Young. "Accordingly, these proposed rules are not tethered to any statute — and are, therefore, likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do."

According to the Journal, Democrats have an ally in Raffensberger. The state elections chief referred to the board as "activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process," who "undermine voter confidence and burden election workers."

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal's report in its entirety (subscription required).

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