Post by easye on Oct 15, 2024 15:13:54 GMT -5
www.npr.org/2024/10/15/nx-s1-5144185/georgia-election-certification-rules
Local board members in Georgia can't refuse to certify election results, judge rules
ATLANTA — Local election board members in Georgia cannot refuse to certify election results in any scenario, even if they report concerns about fraud or errors, a state judge ruled Tuesday.
“If election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so — because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud — refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his decision. “Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen.”
The ruling comes as several Republican local election board members have already declined to certify election results from primary contests earlier this year and after the Georgia State Election Board passed new rules that appeared to allow this discretion. Georgia’s Republican secretary of state has long emphasized that certification is not optional under Georgia law.
Local board members in Georgia can't refuse to certify election results, judge rules
ATLANTA — Local election board members in Georgia cannot refuse to certify election results in any scenario, even if they report concerns about fraud or errors, a state judge ruled Tuesday.
“If election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so — because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud — refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his decision. “Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen.”
The ruling comes as several Republican local election board members have already declined to certify election results from primary contests earlier this year and after the Georgia State Election Board passed new rules that appeared to allow this discretion. Georgia’s Republican secretary of state has long emphasized that certification is not optional under Georgia law.
