The Republican-controlled Georgia Election Board has voted to allow county officials the ability to engage in “reasonable inquiry” of elections before they have to certify results in a political contest — a move that could run afoul of state elections laws and could result in local officials making such decisions based on partisanship rather than legitimate concerns.
State law in Georgia allows for challenges to election outcomes, but they generally come from recounts or through the state court system. The state election board’s new rule, however, allows county election officials to decide for themselves whether an inquiry is needed.
Missing from the new rule is any definition of what a “reasonable inquiry” is — no restrictions are included for the term, allowing local officials to decide for themselves what a reasonable inquiry might entail.
The rule also allows those officials to delay or refuse to certify election results. Critics say the rule change contradicts state election laws, which state that local officials “shall” certify the results — meaning their job is to solely produce the results, not discern whether they’re accurate or not.
The change comes just shy of four years from when Donald Trump, then president and now the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, pressured state elections officials in Georgia “find” him enough votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s win of the state in the 2020 race. Trump alleged, citing no factual evidence of any kind, that the election in Georgia (and in many other states) had been rife with fraud.
Last weekend, when it appeared that the Georgia Election Board would vote in favor of these new changes, Trump lauded the Republican members of the panel during a rally in Atlanta.
“They’re on fire, they’re doing a great job,” Trump said, naming the three members by name and describing them as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
That mention of “victory” in connection with the board’s decision appears to demonstrate that Trump views their action as directly helping him to win the state in the November election.
Legal action against the new rule is likely to follow, with litigants citing the state laws that the rule contravenes. Critics lambasted the rule as both improper and illegal.
“Trump-backed state election board members … want to change our election rules to give power to local elections officials to halt the counting of votes and slow down or refuse certification if they say there are any irregularities, making the certification of election results discretionary,” said state Rep. Sam Park (D), who added that their duties “are mandatory … not discretionary.”
“Inconsistencies in certification could tie up both the counties and the state in expensive and time-consuming litigation,” said Kristin Nabers, the Georgia state director for the voting rights organization All Voting Is Local Action. “This could result not only in counties missing the certification deadline but also in undermining public trust and confidence in our elections.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 98 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy