Chuck Darwin on Nostr: A Georgia judge ruled this week that county election board members cannot block the ...
A Georgia judge ruled this week that county election board members cannot block the certification of votes based on suspicions of fraud or error.
The ruling -- if it stands -- puts to rest the question of whether local election officials would be allowed to throw out individual precincts from county vote totals if they suspect fraud or error.
A new rule adopted by the State Election Board appeared to allow such exclusions.
If county election board members were “free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so
— because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud
— refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in the ruling.
“Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen.”
The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by Julie Adams, a Republican member of Fulton County’s election board
who is also part of a right-wing group that has raised doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections.
Adams’ lawyer argued in court that the new election rule empowered county board members to refuse to certify votes they suspected of being tainted by fraud or error.
This power, the lawyer argued, extended all the way to excluding entire precincts’ votes if they found something they considered suspicious in the returns
https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-election-results-certification-counting-votes
The ruling -- if it stands -- puts to rest the question of whether local election officials would be allowed to throw out individual precincts from county vote totals if they suspect fraud or error.
A new rule adopted by the State Election Board appeared to allow such exclusions.
If county election board members were “free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so
— because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud
— refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in the ruling.
“Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen.”
The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by Julie Adams, a Republican member of Fulton County’s election board
who is also part of a right-wing group that has raised doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections.
Adams’ lawyer argued in court that the new election rule empowered county board members to refuse to certify votes they suspected of being tainted by fraud or error.
This power, the lawyer argued, extended all the way to excluding entire precincts’ votes if they found something they considered suspicious in the returns
https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-election-results-certification-counting-votes