Atlanta — State and national Democratic parties filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block two recent rules adopted by the Georgia State Board of Elections that could be used by county officials who want to refuse to certify an election, potentially leading to delays in finalizing the state’s results.
The lawsuit, filed before a state judge in Atlanta, argues that the rules violate a state law that requires certification. The lawsuit asks the judge to declare the rules invalid because the state elections board, now dominated by allies of former President Donald Trump, is overstepping its legal authority.
The board’s actions have worried Democrats and voting rights activists, and come amid partisan battles over voting procedures in Georgia that predate the 2020 presidential election. This is a battle in another state over what has long been an administrative afterthought: the state and local boards that certify results.
The lawsuit claims the rules invite post-election chaos, that the board defies state law that says county officials “must certify” the results, and that more than a century of Georgia case law shows county officials have no discretion.
“According to their drafters, these rules are based on the assumption that certification of election results by a county board is discretionary and subject to free inquiry that can delay certification or prevent it altogether. But that is not the law in Georgia,” states the complaint filed in Fulton County Superior Court.
Pro-Trump Republicans argue that the rules only reinforce a county board of elections’ existing duty to scrutinize election results, stressing that each board member must swear an oath to tabulate “true and perfect” results.
“These common-sense changes will benefit all Georgians, regardless of political affiliation, as they are all designed to increase transparency and public confidence in our elections,” state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon said in a statement defending the rule changes earlier Monday, before the lawsuit was made public.
A trio of Republicans close to Trump took control of the five-member regulatory board earlier this year. The board has no direct role in determining election outcomes, but it writes rules to ensure elections run smoothly and hears complaints about violations.
Trump praised those members by name at an Aug. 3 rally in Atlanta, saying the three “are all pit bulls who fight for honesty, transparency and winning,” but criticized the Democrat on the board and the nonpartisan chairman appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp, saying they “are not that good.”
That, along with McKoon’s welcoming of the board takeover and then emailing proposed rules to board members, has led Democrats to claim that a once-dormant board is now a direct tool of Trump.
“The Georgia State Board of Elections is becoming an accomplice in this attempt to suppress our votes,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath said Monday at a news conference at the Georgia Capitol. “By passing this new rule, they are creating obstacles to the counting of votes and the certification of the election so that Donald Trump can once again attempt to plunge our country into chaos.”
A Democratic senator and the former chairman of the Fulton County Board of Elections both sent letters asking Kemp to remove the three Trump-affiliated board members for violating state ethics laws. Kemp asked Republican Attorney General Chris Carr on Monday to determine whether Kemp has the legal authority to review the requests.
The Democrats’ complaint specifically cites language added by a rule to require county election officials to conduct a “reasonable investigation” before certifying results. It also targets a second rule that allows county election officials “to review all election-related records created during the conduct of the election.”
Alleged fraud or misconduct should be addressed by the courts, not by county officials as they tally the results, the lawsuit argues, citing more than a century of Georgia court decisions.
Although the new rules could be interpreted as being consistent with Georgia law, authorizing only a review or revision that would not delay certification, “that is not what the drafters of these rules intended to do,” the lawsuit says, citing their testimony before the board.
The first rule does not define “reasonable inquiry” and the second “has no basis in the electoral code or case law,” the lawsuit argues.
It’s not clear that counties could successfully refuse to certify. They would face lawsuits asking judges to order county boards to fulfill their legal obligations. And it’s unlikely that Fulton County or any of the state’s five other most populous counties, all of which are staunchly Democratic, would reject certification. Instead, certification refusals would likely come from smaller, more Republican counties.
In Georgia, state officials had to order rural Coffee County to certify in 2020. In May, Republican-appointed Fulton County Board of Elections member Julie Adams refused to certify the primary election results after filing a lawsuit backed by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, which argues that county board members have the discretion to reject certification.
The lawsuit was filed by county election board members in metro Atlanta, most of whom were chosen by the local Democratic Party, as well as voters who support Democrats, two Democratic state legislators running for reelection and the state and national Democratic parties.
