Georgia judge says county election officials can’t delay or refuse to certify election results

CNN
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County election officials in Georgia cannot delay or refuse to certify election results, a state judge ruled Monday, dealing a blow to efforts by conservatives in the battleground state to gain the legal right to reject results on suspicion of fraud or abuse.

“Georgia election officials have a duty to certify election results,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in an 11-page ruling. “Consequently, no returning officer (or member of an election and registration committee) may under any circumstances refuse or refrain from certifying the election results.”

The case is one of the most closely watched election certification disputes in the critical battleground state. A ruling is still pending in a separate case brought by state and national Democrats challenging a state election board rule that requires local election officials to conduct an “adequate investigation” of election results before certifying them.

McBurney said in his ruling that while local superintendents have a duty to “investigate miscounting concerns,” such concerns “do not constitute grounds to delay or deny certification.”

The case was filed by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, who had asked the judge to declare that her duties in certifying election results were “discretionary and not ministerial in nature.”

“If, as plaintiff demands, election officials were free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury and judge and therefore refused – based on a unilateral finding of error or fraud – to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced McBurney wrote. “Our constitution and our electoral law do not allow this.”

County election officials face a legal deadline of Nov. 12 of this year to certify election results.

Fulton County has had legitimate problems conducting its elections, and earlier this year the State Election Board reprimanded the county and appointed an independent election observer due to problems that arose in connection with the 2020 presidential election, including an incident in which a number of ballots were lost One of the recounts from 2020 was scanned twice.

But extensive reviews of Georgia’s 2020 election — which included two machine vote counts and one hand count — found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. There is no evidence that ballots were tampered with or that mail-in ballots were improperly received by couriers in 2020 or any subsequent elections.

The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, both of which intervened in the case – with support from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign – to counter Adams’ arguments, celebrated Tuesday’s ruling as a major legal victory.

“Election after election, in state after state, we have protected our elections from far-right Republicans trying to disrupt them, and Democrats remain ready to stand up and ensure that every voter can cast their ballot knowing that “It was clear to the experts that the 2020 election was free, fair and secure, and Democrats are ensuring the 2024 election is the same,” the groups said in a joint statement.

An attorney for Adams did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

In his ruling, McBurney handed Adams a small victory by saying she had the right to request and receive access to “election information” before the results were certified. However, the judge wrote: “Any delay in receiving this information is not a reason to refuse or refrain from certifying the election results.”

McBurney also emphasized that concerns about potential voter fraud or abuse can be raised by superintendents or others through post-confirmation court challenges, so-called “ballot contests.”

“It is important that election campaigns take place in open court under the watchful eyes of a judge and the public,” he wrote. “One side’s allegations of fraud are tested by the opposing side in this public court – rather than being quietly ‘decided’ by a superintendent outside of the public sphere, resulting in votes being excluded from the final count without affording those voters due process.” is granted.” .”

This story has been updated with additional developments.