Republicans are appealing a Georgia judge’s ruling striking down controversial new voting rules

CNN
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State and national Republicans on Thursday appealed a Georgia judge’s ruling striking down a series of controversial new election rules passed by Donald Trump’s allies, including two related to the state’s vote certification process, which Democrats have criticized saying he would bring “chaos” to the critical battleground state after the election day.

Lawyers for the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party appealed the ruling directly to the Georgia Supreme Court, which has the authority to hear campaign cases or certain state constitutional challenges without waiting for an opinion from the state’s intermediate court. The state Supreme Court The court has the option to reject the direct appeal.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement Thursday night that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox’s ruling a day earlier was “an example of the worst kind of judicial activism.”

“By striking down the Georgia State Election Board’s common-sense rules put in place to protect Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability and the integrity of our elections,” he said. “We immediately appealed this egregious order to ensure that sensible rules apply to the election – we will not let that happen.”

Cox struck down seven rules adopted by Georgia’s state elections board, including one that would require county election officials to conduct a “reasonable investigation” of election results before certifying them and another that would allow them ” to examine all election-related documents created during the implementation”. of the elections before the results are certified.”

“The court here declares that these rules are unlawful, unconstitutional and void,” Cox wrote in his ruling Wednesday.

The judge also struck down rules that would have required officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place on Election Day and expanded the number of areas poll watchers can access.