Democrats sue Georgia board over election certification rules

Aug. 30 (UPI) -- National and state Democrats, along with a number of county board members, are suing the Georgia State Election Board over certification rules they argue could cause confusion and delay the process.

The lawsuit was filed on Monday by the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Party of Georgia and a group of nine county board members throughout the state. It challenges two new rules that the election board passed earlier this month that give greater authority to local election officials to investigate and delay certification of election results.

The first rule, called the reasonable inquiry rule, gives the state's 159 county election boards the authority to conduct a vaguely described investigation into the results of the election beyond the tabulation and canvassing that already takes place.

The second rule, the examination rule, gives election officials the authority to access any election-related documents without outlining any limitations.

The lawsuit argues that these rules, and the decision by the election board to enact them, violate state election law. It also calls the state election board's authority to make such rules into question.

The plaintiffs say the rules could comply with state law if they were to ensure they will not allow certification to be delayed beyond the state's Nov. 12 deadline. Delaying certification beyond that date could result in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger being forced to certify without results from counties where challenges are made, leading to voters in those counties being disenfranchised.

The Democratic Party of Georgia submitted comments to the election board during the public comment period earlier this year. It suggested that if these rules were to be adopted, the board would issue a "concise statement" for and against its adoption. The board did not.

"This is a trend across the entire country," Michael Adame, senior staff attorney with the Public Rights Project's Election Protection Hub, told UPI. "The idea is to muddy the waters over election workers and confuse voters to put out this idea that the election will be up to debate and potentially impacted by fraud."

Nineteen election board members in nine Georgia counties have raised challenges to the certification of election results since the 2020 election.