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While most of the news media this week is focusing on National Democratic CongressIn Chicago, I think of Georgia. Why? Because Georgia State Board of ElectionsThe House of Representatives discussed during its meeting on Monday more rules and amendments to the current rules governing state elections.
Over the past two weeks, as I and Others Owns DocumentedThe Council – consists of a President of the Republic, three Donald The former president praised Trump loyalists as “PitbullS, And a lone Democrat — he pushed through two troubling new measures. First, he approved a new rule allowing local election boards to delay certifying their results while they conduct “reasonable investigations.” Then he voted to To the Attorney General of Georgia To investigateH A complaint has already been settled regarding errors in the 2020 Fulton County ballot count. (State Attorney General Chris Carr informed the board before the vote that reopening the complaint would be illegal and Issue a formal written opinion. (He said on Monday that the council had no right to direct him to conduct any such investigation.)
The two moves by the Election Commission have been widely criticized as wolves in sheep’s clothing, according to the Elections Administration’s own statement: They are apparently neutral processes, implemented in Georgia counties. In reality, they are intended to Preventing the certification of results for some counties or even at the state level.
However, the Georgia Board of Elections didn’t stop there. At its meeting on Monday, it approved an amendment to a list rule proposed by Cobb County Republican Party Chairwoman Sally Grubbs. As explained in Grabbs petitionThe amendment requires county boards to conduct a “reconciliation” of votes in each precinct, where they must “compare the total number of ballots cast with the total number of unique voter identification numbers.” It also requires that if there is any discrepancy between the two, no matter how small or insignificant, an investigation be conducted. The petition states that “no votes from that precinct shall be counted” until the results of that investigation are presented to the county board.
But that’s not all. The so-called Grubbs rule gives county election commissioners the authority to “examine all election-related documents generated during the course of an election before certifying the results.” This lesser-known feature of the rule has been pointed out to me by lawyers and voting rights activists as not just a way to delay or block certification, but more importantly, as a potential means of gathering “evidence” to perpetuate another election. “big lie” If Vice President Kamala Harris wins the Georgia presidential election.
During public comments at Monday’s meeting, Georgia election workers from counties across the state, concerned residents, and civil rights advocates raised concerns that the Grubbs rule would prevent counties from reporting results in the time required by state law. Instead, the rule was enforced “This will lead to the failure of 159 districts.” As one election worker pointed out.
However, supporters of the rule have suggested that they are merely ensuring compliance with existing Georgia law. Former Department of Homeland Security official and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli even tried to distance the reconciliation proposal from a 2020 election interference scheme, noting that “the other side was complaining in 2016… and whoever loses is the one who complains.”
But unfortunately for Cuccinelli, Ultra-conservative “election fraud conspiracy” group True the VoteA group of people who recently focused on challenging voter registration in multiple states has dropped the stunt. In a celebratory tweet, the group announced He praised Georgia. Ha lecture forCommittee to establish a “logical audit trail” In passing the Grubbs Rule, it is simply assumed that there would be no need to audit any specific county in Georgia, let alone all counties.
And so Georgians head into a November election where the Elections Board has approved a series of obscure but dangerous measures designed to avoid county-level certification and fuel tales of fraud and woe. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been stripped of his role on the board, and beyond certifying the state’s results without the rogue counties, he may not be able to do much. It’s unclear whether Carr or Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp can stop the board either (though Kemp has accused it of corruption). I received a complaint From the former Fulton County Board of Elections Chairman asking him to remove three members from the board for their unlawful conduct).
Will Georgia's courts eventually become the state's best hope for timely justice? and Fair elections? Watch this space.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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