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Georgia judge rules counties must certify November election results

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Georgia judge rules counties must certify November election results

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Local election officials have no choice when it comes to certifying election results this November before the state’s deadline, a Georgia judge ruled Tuesday.

Judge Robert CI McBurney’s ruling rejected a request by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Atlanta Fulton County Board of Elections, for a court declaration that she has the option not to certify the election results . Adams, who is one of five members on his board, refused to certify the results in a May primary election and said he should have the right to do so again if he believes the results are incorrect or unreliable because he has taken an oath to “avoid any fraud, deception or abuse”.

The ruling provides useful clarity in Georgia amid growing fears that local officials could sow chaos after the November election by refusing to certify results before the state’s Nov. 12 deadline this year, a week after the elections. Across the country, local officials have increasingly refused to certify results in the wake of 2020, when former President Donald Trump sought to overturn his election loss.

If the election board members were “free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge, and therefore, because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud, refuse to certify the results of the election, the Georgia voters would be silenced,” McBurney wrote Tuesday.

“Our Constitution and our Electoral Code do not allow this to happen,” he added.

Attorneys for Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Adams said she needed a court ruling on the matter because she had been threatened with civil litigation and could even risk criminal prosecution for allegedly failing to fulfill her duties.

McBurney granted a portion of Adams’ request in his document access lawsuit, writing that if members of the county’s election board determine they need election information from their staff, the information “s ‘must provide promptly’, unless protected by law or rule. .

“However, any delay in receiving this information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or refraining from doing so,” McBurney added.

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McBurney wrote that if county election board members discover what appears to be fraud, they must still count all the votes, but they should also report their concerns to a prosecutor.

McBurney is also presiding over a separate case brought by national and state Democrats who wanted him to declare certification mandatory after the Georgia State Board of Elections made some last-minute rule changes that critics of the board fear would local officials could use as justification. not certify results. The state board has maintained that the new rules do not change the deadline to certify under Georgia state law.

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