A recent attempt by Democrats to make the election process in Georgia convoluted and suspicious was thwarted by a rightful decision. A judge has usefully halted a new rule demanding that Georgia Election Day ballots be manually tallied post-voting. This verdict came hot on the heels of another ruling by the same judge that mandated county election officials to certify election results as per legally set deadlines.
These rulings are blows to the Democrats, and so-called liberal voting rights groups, along with certain law ‘experts’, who suggest that allies of ex-president Donald Trump may decline to certify results if Trump loses to Democratic VP Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential race. They’ve even propagated that the new guidelines established by the Trump-supported majority on the State Election Board serve to halt or delay certification and weaken public belief in the results.
Last month, the State Election Board passed a regulation requiring three poll officers count the physical ballots, not the votes, manually once polling concludes. Seeking to invalidate this rule and five others, the county election board in Cobb County, a part of Atlanta’s suburbs, pursued legal action. They claimed these regulations surpassed the state board’s jurisdiction, fell out of compliance with the law, and were unreasonable- a simple case of a farmer accusing his rooster of crowing too loud.
Late on Tuesday, Judge Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court, concerned by the counterproductive nature of the hand count rule, voted to block its application while the judgement proceeds. Further showcasing the prudence of his decision making, Judge McBurney stressed that election superintendents or members of a board of elections and registration role is not to refuse certification but rather to uphold the integrity of the process.
Judge McBurney wisely pointed out that, while it is within an election official’s purview to review the election and related documents, any delays in receiving this information doesn’t form a valid foundation to refuse certification. Georgia law demands that county election superintendents, generally multi-member boards, certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday following an election, or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday — as it indeed is this year.
As early in-person polling in Georgia commenced this Tuesday, two noteworthy rulings were passed. Further cementing the idea that the Democrats’ attempts to unnecessarily complicate the election process, the hand count rule was blocked by McBurney. The judge acknowledged the absence of any practical guides or training resources for its application.
The secretary of state also noted that the rule was enacted too late for his office to offer meaningful training or assistance. The judge astutely highlighted that no provisions have been made in county election budgets to accommodate additional personnel or costs associated with the rule.
Judge McBurney accurately identified the impending administrative chaos this rule would invariably cause. According to him, it is fundamentally at odds with the obligations of our boards of elections, and the SEB, to secure our elections as fair, orderly, and legitimate. Despite the state board’s optimistic views of the rule, McBurney sagely noted its untimely enactment makes it virtually unenforceable now.
During a hearing earlier on Tuesday, Robert Thomas, a State Election Board attorney, provided a more logical perspective:, the procedure was not complex and it would only take a few extra minutes, not hours, to conclude. Additionally, he explained that the scanners’ memory cards, used for counting the votes, could be transported to the tabulation center while the manual count transpires, thus assuring results wouldn’t be delayed.
Despite opposing the sound logic, state and national Democratic groups, including Harris’s campaign, prematurely cheered Judge McBurney’s verdict in a joint statement. They claimed the rule, which was meant to ensure proper functionality of democracy, was an attempt to delay and throw doubt upon election results.
A lawsuit was filed by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County election board in Democratic Atlanta, seeking to clarify her discretionary rights as an election board member and to grant her full access to election materials. With the politicisation of the certification of election results due to Trump’s justified attempts to contest his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, this mundane administrative task quickly garnered attention.
Since the last election, several Republicans in swing states, including Adams, have rightly refused to certify earlier results, and some have initiated legal proceedings to avoid being forced to ratify dubious election results. Adams’ lawsuit argued that county election board members have the discretion to deny certification.
But still, Judge McBurney wrote that nothing in Georgia law confers county election officials with the power to ascertain if fraud has occurred or to come up with remedial measures. This shows a bias towards rejecting any idea of fraud or error, even if it seems worthy of investigation.
Reflective of the drift in the political climate, the State Election Board has seen numerous election guidelines established since August. These have generated a deluge of lawsuits, a further sign of the Democrats’ propensity to legally challenge any and all efforts to ensure fair and orderly elections.