Georgia’s new voting rules are still in effect, and the race between Harris and Trump is now fast and furious • Georgia Recorder

The ongoing dispute over the Georgia State Election Board’s recent overhaul of the way counties conduct elections could be left to the state’s highest court to decide whether the board overstepped its authority.

The Republican Party of Georgia and the National Republican Committee are asking the Georgia Supreme Court to make a final decision on whether the state will enforce a series of new requirements with just over two weeks until Election Day. Republican lawyers on Wednesday want to overturn a Fulton County judge’s ruling that blocks the state elections board from issuing several new rules for the Nov. 5 general election unless the state Supreme Court rules otherwise.

Several Republican groups appealed Thursday directly to the Georgia Supreme Court, which will decide whether or not to take up the case. The once-unknown election board is now drawing attention across the country because its rules could potentially influence the presidential race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Republicans are calling for a decision by the Georgia Supreme Court, rather than the state’s appeals court, to expedite an answer to whether the election board’s series of new rules in recent months have exceeded the constitutional authority of state election boards.

The Supreme Court is likely to decide in the next few days whether to hear a case involving a government agency’s constitutional right to make changes to how elections are conducted across the state.

Georgia state officials, voting rights groups, county election officials and Democratic and Republican party groups are watching with keen interest as Georgia courts resolve recent challenges to the State Election Board’s rules.

Several civil rights organizations are closely watching as Republican parties appealed to the state Supreme Court on Friday to reinstate a controversial hand-counting rule for ballots.

Georgia is one of seven swing states that could influence the outcome of the presidential game between Harris and Trump on November 5th.

Top Republican Party officials are sharply criticizing Supreme Court Justice Thomas A. Cox Jr.’s ruling last week that three right-wing members of the State Election Board violated the law by usurping the power to govern the legislature , which the judge says is within the jurisdiction of the Republican Party’s Georgia General Assembly.

Cox wrote in his ruling that the Georgia Constitution simply gives the General Assembly the exclusive right to enact election laws, which are overseen and ratified by the State Department.

The Cox ruling overturned polarizing rule changes that gave local election board members the right to inspect voting records before certifying the results. The judge also issued new guidelines that allow county election board officials to consider any vote discrepancies or other voting irregularities when deciding whether to reject or certify the results.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley called Cox’s ruling “the worst kind of legal activism” based on political partisanship rather than sound legal principles.

“By striking down the Georgia State Election Board’s common-sense rules put in place to protect Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability and the integrity of our elections,” Whatley said in a statement Explanation.

If Georgia’s elections are more secure than ever, why do so many voters distrust the system?

The state elections board has been forced to defend itself against a barrage of lawsuits since former Republican state Sen. Rick Jeffares and political media personality Janelle King were appointed to the five-member board earlier this year. The controversial rules were often adopted by a 3-2 majority, with Republican Janice Johnston of Fulton County joining King of Sandy Spring and Jeffares of Henry County in pushing the proposed changes until the rules were finalized several weeks later.

Georgia’s Republican Attorney General Chris Carr warned the board in writing in late September about the actions of the three members Trump praised, saying their actions were not permitted under Georgia law.

One of the lawsuits Cox ruled on Wednesday was filed by Eternal Vigilance Action, an election advocacy nonprofit founded in 2021 by former Republican Rep. Scot Turner. Individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Turner and James Hall, a Republican member of the Chatham County Board of Elections.

Turner said he decided to file a lawsuit against the Georgia Board of Elections because he believes it improperly assumed election rule duties assigned to the state Legislature. Before leaving the House at the end of 2020, Turner sponsored several major election bills and served on the House committee that reviewed and voted on election law advancements outside of committee.

Turner said his lawsuit is about the merits of each of the state board’s new rules, but rather a defense of the long-standing conservative principle of a separation of powers in government.

“I don’t know what the Supreme Court will do at this point, but I can tell you we are ready to continue the fight no matter what,” Turner said.

The Holly Springs Republican, who defended his strong conservative voting record in the Legislature, said he also accused the Georgia Board of Elections in 2020 of improperly adopting several emergency voting rules in response to the pandemic.

Turner said he understands how frustrated some election board officials get when state legislatures don’t pass laws based on the board’s recommendations. But he said lawyers defending the Georgia Board of Elections’ current rules are arguing in court that an executive board of unelected bureaucrats has been given powers that conflict with Georgia law and conservative ideology.

“It cannot be that five unelected people take matters into their own hands in the style of a vigilante or an emperor,” he said.

The timing of election board meetings was a constant source of tension this summer and fall among state association members representing Georgia’s local election officials. The panel’s new rules, which require a hand count of ballots cast on Election Day, expanding poll watcher access and voter certification, have been criticized by Democrats and civil rights groups as a potential cause of chaos at the polls and among county poll workers.

Trump praised King, Jeffares and Johnston by name for supporting changes to county election certification boards and other election rules, calling them “pit bulls” for “victory” during a campaign rally in Atlanta this summer.

The day before Cox announced his ruling, Supreme Court Justice Robert McBurney ruled on a complaint filed by Fulton Republican Board of Elections member Julie Adams after she refused to certify the March presidential primary. McBurney ruled that it would be mandatory for local election boards to certify election results and that county election officials could request to inspect election records before the deadline.

King rejects allegations of partisan rulemaking

King lamented Cox’s rejection of the seven rules she had championed. He found it unconstitutional and added a rebuke to the electoral board, which he said had interfered in the legislative business. She said she supported the new rules not based on loyalty to Trump or the Republican Party, but rather on her desire to protect the integrity and accuracy of Georgia’s elections.

“This was a Republican who filed this case against us, so this is not a partisan issue,” she said. “It’s all about how people view our role,” King said Thursday on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast.

She recalled that Cox repealed some rules that were also supported by the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials.

“I’m really more disappointed that I feel like the pendulum has swung,” King said. “There were a lot of people who were against what we were doing and they were so upset and emotional about it. Now I think they have some reprieve and now the pendulum has swung to the other side.”

The Georgia NAACP and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda are intervening on behalf of plaintiffs challenging a hand-counting ballot rule that they say would delay key certification deadlines. The rule would require three poll workers in each precinct to open ballot boxes after polls close and count ballots individually to confirm whether the hand count matches the number of machine-counted ballots.

“We were proud to represent our customers and the interests of Georgia voters and local election officials, preventing an unelected state election board from rewriting our election law and bringing chaos to the democratic system in the immediate run-up to the November election,” he told Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which helps provide legal services to the intervening groups.

“Early voting has begun and over one million Georgians have already cast their ballot,” Young said in a statement. “Judge Cox’s decision prevented a mid-game rule change. We were pleased the trial court agreed with us and look forward to arguing our case next in the state’s highest court.”

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