ELECTION INTEGRITYElection Deniers Continue Attempts to Meddle with Certification – But the Process Is Resilient
Georgia’s State Election Board made it easier to delay certification, but disputes do not mean problems with the election.
Picture the following scenario: On Election Day this year, you and your neighbors head to the polls to cast your vote for candidates up and down the ballot. After the polls close, poll workers and local election officials carry out a rigorous, multi-step process to tally the votes, check for any discrepancies in the vote totals, and ensure that final results are accurate. A few weeks later, it comes time for the local board of elections, a bipartisan body that certifies the election results for your county, to sign off on the completion of that process. But one of the board members refuses. That member, with known ties to election conspiracy theorists, demands to investigate the votes — a request that falls far outside the lines of a certifying official’s duties. The election itself was smooth, but still this person refuses to proceed with their mandatory duty, placing the votes of thousands in your county — including yours — at risk.
This is not a hypothetical. In May, this was a reality in Georgia’s Fulton County, home to Atlanta. Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Elections and an active participant in an election denier group, refused to certify the county’s primary election earlier this year based on vague claims of “discrepancies.” The rest of the board voted to certify the results in late May, while Adams abstained. She has since filed a lawsuit against the very board she sits on and Fulton County’s election director, arguing that as a local election official, she can refuse to certify the results until the county provides her with mountains of election data to investigate the election.
Adams’ argument — that certifying officials should have some flexibility in their ministerial role — contradicts Georgia state law, history, and supreme court precedent. Yet three Republicans on Georgia’s state election board just backed it up. On Tuesday, the state board voted to adopt a new rule that empowers local boards to pursue a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying the election. Without defining or setting any limits on that “reasonable inquiry,” the new rule endangers the certification process and could encourage local election officials who want to conduct time-consuming investigations.
