Expert warns this swing state’s election agency has become a 'MAGA government body'

According to the Cook Political Report, Georgia is very much in play for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Cook's polling analysis finds that Harris and GOP rival Donald Trump are tied in that key battleground state.

But journalist Justin Glawe, in an article published by Rolling Stone on August 14, warns that the Georgia State Election Board is now saddled with MAGA loyalists who may not accept election outcomes they don't like.

"After completing the MAGA takeover of the Georgia State Election Board," Glawe explains. "Donald Trump's allies quickly cemented his 2020 election lies into policy, and moved to allow conspiratorial-minded county election officials to refuse to certify election results if they see fit. Even before the election board granted broad powers to county election officials to deny election results and reopened an investigation into minor vote-counting errors in Fulton County in 2020, Trump was publicly praising the work of three Republicans who hold majority power on the board."

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The three Trump loyalists that Glawe is referring to are Rick Jeffares, Dr. Janice Johnston, and Janelle King.

According to Georgia Democrat Sara Tindall-Ghazal, the presence of MAGA election deniers on the Georgia State Election Board (which she is a part of) is a recipe for "chaos" in the 2024 election.

Tindall-Ghazal told Rolling Stone, "I think it's important to put it all in context with what's happened in the last month. Yes, we've got some rules that are particularly egregious and threaten a smooth election process but you've also got some really pernicious rules that will cause chaos right at the election."

Max Flugrath, communications director for the voting rights group Fair Fight, is sounding the alarm as well.

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Flugrath told Rolling Stone, "The State Election Board has become a MAGA government body,” says Max Flugrath, communications director for Fair Fight, the left-leaning voting rights group founded by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams."

Another warning came from Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party.

Olasanoye told Rolling Stone, "Our State Election Board exists to protect the right to vote for all Georgians, not to favor any single candidate in any election. The three members Donald Trump called his 'pitbulls' for 'victory' disagree, and they're determined to establish a new power of not certifying an election result should their preferred candidate lose — as he did in 2020."

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Read Rolling Stone's full article at this link (subscription required).