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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
New Georgia election rules passed by Trump-backed board are
unconstitutional, judge rules
By Devan Cole, CNN
Updated:
7:26 PM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
A judge in Georgia has passed by Donald Trump allies, including two
that Democrats say would inject post-election “chaos” into the
critical battleground state.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox said violated state law
are two that would require county election officials to conduct a
“reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them
and allow them to “examine all election related documentation created
during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”
“The court here declares that these rules are illegal,
unconstitutional and void,” Cox wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.
Georgia’s 16 electoral votes are crucial for both Trump and
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. President Joe Biden
won the state by just over 10,000 votes in 2020.
Early voting began in the Peach State on Tuesday with .
Three GOP members of the Georgia State Election Board were thrust into
the spotlight after at a rally in Atlanta this summer.
“They’re on fire. They are doing a great job,” Trump said during
his August 3 speech in Atlanta. “Three members … all pit bulls
fighting for transparency, honesty and victory.”
After their passage in August, the two rules were quickly challenged by
Democrats and others, who feared that that they would give officials in
the state broad authority to delay or decline altogether their
certification of the results in order to look for alleged election
fraud or abuse.
But Cox said in his ruling that the “reasonable inquiry” rule
“adds an additional and undefined step into the certification
process” and that the “examination” rule “creates a statutorily
unbounded scope under which (election) superintendents can consider
unauthorized materials when tabulating, canvassing, and certifying
election results.”
The GOP-controlled State Election Board has claimed that the rules give
no discretion to county officials, but what constitutes a “reasonable
inquiry” has left voting rights advocates, Democrats and others
challenging the rules concerned that a partisan election county
official may be able to use their discretion to reject election
outcomes.
Wednesday’s ruling came in a case brought by the election advocacy
group Eternal Vigilance Action.
Among the other rules Cox invalidated is one that would have required
officials to hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling
place, saying Georgia law didn’t support the requirement. A different
judge in the state on Tuesday in a separate challenge brought against
it by Cobb County.
“The rule vastly expands the authority and obligations of poll
officials in preparing ballots pre-delivery to the superintendents and
pre-certification,” Cox wrote Wednesday.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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