Georgia Democrats sue State Election Board over rules changes

ATLANTA — The Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia are suing to block rules changes the plaintiffs say would let the State Election Board delay or prevent certification of election results in November.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Fulton County Superior Court, takes aim at rules changes to state election laws the Republican-controlled board approved in recent weeks allowing local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results if they suspect election fraud.

The Democrats also are challenging a new rule that lets county election board members “examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”

“Through rulemaking, SEB has attempted to turn the straightforward and mandatory act of certification — i.e. confirmation of the accurate tabulation of the votes cast — into a broad license for individual board members to hunt for purported election irregularities of any kind, potentially delaying certification and displacing longstanding (and court-supervised) processes for addressing fraud,” the suit states.

The lawsuit was filed on the same day Georgia Democrats and civil rights leaders held a news conference calling on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to remove the three GOP State Election Board members who voted for the rules changes.

Democrats accused the three board members, praised by former President Trump during a recent rally in Atlanta, of laying the groundwork for Trump to capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes even if he doesn’t prevail at the ballot box.

“Our State Election Board exists to protect the right to vote for all Georgians, not to favor any single candidate in any election,” U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, who also chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, said. “The three members Donald Trump called his ‘pit bulls’ for ‘victory’ disagree, and they’re determined to establish a new power of not certifying an election result should their preferred candidate lose — as he did in 2020.”

Georgia Republican Chairman Josh McKoon called the changes “common-sense rules” intended to promote election integrity.

“In no way do these rule changes interfere with anyone’s right to vote or cause undue burdens on election workers,” McKoon said. “These steps will ensure transparency, accountability, accurate reporting and reconciliation, and preservation of the right for both parties to observe the processing of ballots.”

File Photo