Republicans Suffer Devastating Blow in Georgia Just Before Election
In the swing state of Georgia, a judge has ruled that election officials cannot refuse to certify election results.
In the groundbreaking ruling on Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney stated that “certifying election results … is mandatory.”
“No election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”
Obviously, the judge noted, county election officials have the duty to “investigate concerns about miscounts.” But otherwise, election officials have a duty to certify the results no later than 5 p.m. on the Monday following the election.
The ruling aims to put a stop to any unnecessary delay or holdup thanks to election deniers. Fulton County was the epicenter of Donald Trump’s 2020 scheme to overturn the election.
McBurney’s ruling came after Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, challenged her duty to certify election results. Legal challenges like this one have played an important role in the GOP’s “election integrity” efforts going into November, as election deniers are filing lawsuits across the country to change election procedures.
“If election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, 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,” wrote the judge.
Earlier this year, Fulton County was given an independent election monitor in response to the issues that arose during the 2020 presidential election. At least 19 county election officials, most Republican, have voted not to certify election results since then, according to an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Trump has actively cheered on these officials.
This ruling has thrown a wrench in efforts to suppress election results in the state in November. Another similar ruling is still pending in a separate case filed by state and national Democrats.
