Georgia election rule changes by Trump allies raise fear of chaos in November

ATLANTA– Four years ago, Georgia was central to the former president Donald Trump attempts to overturn his loss to the Democrats Joe BidenDemocrats fear Trump is at it again, even before the first votes are cast.

Many Democrats in the crucial swing state believe that Republicans, backed by Trump, are laying the groundwork for a new attempt to undermine the vote if the Republican nominee narrowly loses in November, this time by manipulating election rules.

The unrest is caused by a takeover of the Georgia State Election Board earlier this year by Trump allies after Republican lawmakers the secretary of state was thrown outwho opposed Trump’s efforts to undermine the election in 2020, from the panel. The new majority started making changes to the election rules which alarmed Democrats, legal experts and pro-democracy advocates.

One rule provides for an undefined “reasonable investigation” before county election officials certify the results, while the other allows county election officials to “examine any election-related documentation produced during the election.” Critics say those rules could be used by county officials to deny certification, potentially unleashing a legal firestorm at a time when statewide results should be certified.

State Representative Saira DraperAn Atlanta Democrat who served as the party’s voter protection director in 2020 said preventing a final state-level count may not even be Republicans’ main goal.

“It’s not about whether they can stop certification,” she said. “It’s about creating enough confusion in the process that a significant portion of the population will not accept the results. I think they will achieve that goal regardless of what these court rulings say.”

Despite widespread criticism, the board will discuss about ten additional rules at its meeting on Friday.

The board members making the changes say they want to ensure the accuracy of the vote and dismiss concerns about attempts to delay or block certification.

“The likelihood of that happening now, now that they have more information, is just not likely,” board member Janelle King said. “It creates a narrative that doesn’t exist.”

The controversy playing out in Georgia has national implications, as the presidential race is expected to be decided by voters there and in six other swing states. Disrupting the certification of election results, a once routine process that Trump oversaw through his lies about the 2020 electioncould hamper states’ ability to meet deadlines for counting their electoral votes.

But some legal experts say the worst-case scenario of Republican-dominated local election boards refusing to certify vote counts, and thus preventing Georgia from certifying its totals by an early December deadline, remains unlikely. That’s because state law and court case law firmly state that county officials cannot unilaterally throw out votes and “shall certify” by deadlines set by state law, no matter how much local board members distrust their results.

“There’s no room for local certifying officials to take matters into their own hands,” said Lauren Miller Karalunas, a legal historian at New York University’s Brennan Center. “Their only job during certification is to approve the completeness of the results.”

The Council of State has no direct role in determining election results, but instead writes rules to ensure that elections run smoothly and handles complaints about violations.

Growing concerns among Democrats about the board majority and its actions intensified after Trump praised the majority members by name at an Aug. 3 rally. meeting in Atlantaand called them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

Trump’s focus on the board shows how fights over voting and vote counting are a tool both major parties use to motivate voters in Georgia. Many Democrats say protecting the right to vote is a key issue that motivates Black voters in particular. But it’s also a driving force for Republicans, with the state’s Republican Party chairman Josh McKoon praising the board’s takeover in May. He later emailed the proposed rules to board members and others, including an election integrity adviser to the RNC.

Many of the rules come from local Republicans connected to a nationwide network of election integrity advocates with ties to attorney Cleta Mitchell, who had a January 2021 phone call with Trump in which she urged Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss in Georgia.

“Forces that undermine the security of our elections claim that counties must certify election results no matter what — even if they are fraudulent and illegitimate,” the RNC said in a statement last month. “The establishment is fighting hard against these rules because they want to preserve election systems that are easily manipulated, lack transparency, and have no checks and balances to prevent cheating.”

To make it clear, there was no widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 election. Although Atlanta’s Fulton County has admitted to double-scanning some ballots during a 2020 recount, those errors at least helped Trump. Georgia’s presidential votes were counted three timesincluding one by hand, and each confirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. Stories, reviews And controls in the other battlefield states where also clear confirmed Trump’s loss.

In a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the rules, Democrats allege the state election board exceeded its legal authority. A trial is scheduled for Oct. 1. A conservative group led by a former Republican state lawmaker has also filed a lawsuit, alleging the board improperly used rules to infringe on the Legislature’s power to make laws.

Opponents of the council majority are also trying to convince the Republican governor. Brian Kemp to remove the three Trump allies, alleging ethics violations. The governor has so far done nothing.

With Election Day just two months away and ballots already being mailed to military personnel and voters abroad, say county election officials It’s too late for new rules. The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials has repeatedly criticized many of the proposed changes, saying they provide little benefit, duplicate the efforts of already required procedures or invite local governments to refuse to certify results.

Karen Glenn, an elections official in Butts County, south of Atlanta, said she thought it was “highly irresponsible” for the board to impose new rules on counties as local governments prepare for elections that could produce record turnout.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to prepare, so to implement a new rule now, we have to stop and learn,” Glenn said in an interview last month at a training event for election officials. “It’s just too close. It could lead to mistakes, and we don’t want to make mistakes. We already have very little trust with the public, so that just hurts us.”

Some Republicans argue that county boards of elections can refuse to certify election results. A Republican-appointed Fulton County board member is asking a judge to uphold that position in a lawsuit. But court rulings in Georgia and nationwide say officials cannot refuse.

“That question has been asked and answered hundreds of times, for more than a century,” said the Brennan Center’s Karalunas.

Certifying Georgia’s statewide vote in November is the job of Raffensperger and Kemp, not the State Election Board. Raffensperger, a Republican, has repeatedly said he will push counties to play by the rules, calling their duty to certify “very clear-cut, black-letter law.”

“We expect them to do their job,” he said.