Georgia AG warns MAGA-majority election board against illegal new rules: memo

20 September 2024

The Georgia State Election Board, where MAGA Republicans now have a majority, have approved a new rule requiring a hand count of ballots on Election Day before votes can be tabulated. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a conservative non-MAGA Republican, has been highly critical of them for wanting to change rules this close to the 2024 presidential election.

Now, according to The Guardian's Sam Levine, The Georgia Attorney General's Office has issued a warning to the board members.

In a September 20 tweet, Levine explains, "The Guardian has obtained a memo from the Georgia AG's office advising the State Election Board that many of the rules it is about to pass are illegal."

In the memo, posted on X by Levine, Senior Assistant Georgia Attorney General Elizabeth Young tells Georgia State Election Board Chairman John Fervier, "As a general matter, the passage of any rules concerning the conduct of elections are disfavored when implemented as close to an election as the rules on the September 20 agenda."

Young noted that in Purcell v. Gonzalez, the U.S. Supreme Court said that "court orders affecting elections, especially conflicting orders, can themselves result in voter confusion and consequent incentive to remain away from the polls."

Young, in the memo, went on to tell Fervier that "the Board's power to adult rules is solely derived from statutes passed by the General Assembly."

Young also cautioned that "a broad grant of statutory authority to promulgate rules is not an unlimited grant of authority."

According to Young, "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."

Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein, in response to Levine's tweet, posted, "The pro-Trump majority on the State Election Board in Georgia adopts a rule that Democrats and key Republicans have warned could spark chaos, could cause delays in posting results and is being enacted too close to the election. Expect more legal challenges."

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