Georgia Republicans along with the Republican National Committee are appealing a recent decision by a Fulton County judge, which struck down several election rules approved by the MAGA-controlled state election board that have the potential to delay election certification in the state.
Last week Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox ruled that the board “lacked constitutional authority” to enact seven election rules and that the rules themselves are “illegal, unconstitutional, and void.”
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Georgia Republicans and the nonprofit Eternal Vigilance Action Inc., challenging the board’s approval of several different election laws, including a rule that gives the board authority to not certify election results until after a “reasonable inquiry” into any discrepancies in the voting process at the county level has been conducted by election officials, as well as a rule giving the board the power to examine all election-related documentation before certifying the results.
Experts agree that both of these rules only make it easier for board members to potentially delay election certification with baseless claims of election fraud, and sow seeds of chaos in the election administration system.
These Trumpian election rules were approved in August by three board members, Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jaffares, who were recently praised by name by Donald Trump at an Atlanta campaign rally, when he referred to them as “pitbulls, fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”
But now the Georgia Republican Party and the Republican National Committee have appealed the decision directly to the state Supreme Court, which has the authority to reject the appeal all together.
In response to Cox’s ruling last week, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement: “By overturning the Georgia State Election Board’s commonsense rules passed to safeguard Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with the Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability, and the integrity of our elections.”
He added: “ We have immediately appealed this egregious order to ensure commonsense rules are in place for the election – we will not let this stand.”
This latest legal ruling and subsequent Republican appeal comes off the heels of an another decision this month by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney to temporarily pause another rule approved by the state election board that would require elections workers to hand count the number of ballots cast in addition to a machine tabulation of the results in each precinct. McBurney also separately ruled this month that county election administrators must certify election results despite any suspicions of fraud they may have.
Do we know where these three came from? I mean it really sounds like they didn’t read the handbook on what their responsibilities ar.
The article seemed to say that Georgia Republicans both filed the initial lawsuit against the rules that resulted in the judge’s ruling, and also are filing an appeal to overturn the judge’s ruling.
Maybe the Georgia Democrats filed the lawsuit along with Eternal Vigilance?
It’s really democratic to make it more difficult to vote, AIR?
For the umpteenth time, the state election board does not certify the vote in Georgia. Certification is done at the county level and transmitted to the Secretary of State.