State board of elections passes measure proposed by Fulton board appointee who refused to certify presidential primary

Georgia’s state board of elections adopted new rules for local election boards that permit them to withhold the certification of a vote in the face of unspecified discrepancies – a Republican-led move that could cause uncertainty and confusion after future election days.

The five-person board passed the measure in a 3-2 vote. The three board members who voted for it – Dr Janice Johnson, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King – were praised by name three days ago by Donald Trump at an Atlanta campaign rally.

The rule was proposed by Michael Heekin, a Republican appointee to the Fulton election board who refused to certify the presidential primary earlier this year. The rule requires local boards to initiate a “reasonable inquiry” when discrepancies emerge at a poll, and gives the power to withhold certification until that inquiry was completed. It does not define the term “reasonable inquiry”, nor does it establish strict limitations on the breadth of an inquiry.

The new rule essentially makes the certification of election results discretionary, said Democratic state representative Sam Park at a press conference outside of the hearing room at the Georgia capitol.

  • NegativeInf@lemmy.world
    56·
    3 months ago

    And the supreme court would just point at the Constitution and say “Well it says here that states are responsible for and must hold the elections.” And then trot off into magical dictator land.

    It’s like they fell out of the evil tree and hit every branch on the way down.

    • Pistcow@lemm.ee
      31·
      3 months ago

      And yet they wont allow a state to exclude an insurrectionist from the ballot.

    • ainokea@lemmy.world
      19·
      3 months ago

      3 of them are good people who belive in the law and human rights. Unfortunately they’re outnumbered by evil scum.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.comEnglish
        91·
        3 months ago

        Yeah, and their job now has been reduced to writing an essay-length response to every ruling explaining just how fucked up it is.

  • n1ckn4m3@lemmy.worldEnglish
    42·
    3 months ago

    He doesn’t intend to win this election by votes, he intends to win this election through actions like this.

    Johnson will refuse to certify the results of the election that put Democrats in the House, claiming some kind of bullshit irregularities with no proof, leaving the House controlled by the Republicans. They’ll then claim irregularities in the presidential election and force a contingent election where they have a 100% chance of electing Trump no matter what the public votes.

    More people need to be made aware that this is 100% legal for them to do (this is a perfect example of them making it even MORE legal to completely subvert election certification in a battleground state with no proof), and more people need to be aware that it is almost certainly what they will try. The only thing that can possibly stop it is significant awareness by the mass population of Americans and significant publicity (similar to how mass awareness of Project 2025 turned it into a poison pill).

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    13·
    3 months ago

    Do they have guns in Georgia? I mean, is it one of those batshit red states where any and every motherfucker old enough to drive can waltz into a store and ten minutes later waltz out with a fully loaded assault rifle or what-the-fuck-ever, almost no-questions-asked?

    It is?

    Oh. Well. My advice for the Georgia Election Council is probably not to take people’s voting rights from them. They might get, y’know, fussy. Uppity. Furthermore they might consider these sorts of things before whipping out their tiny flaccid politics on a crowded bus. Because people won’t, what is it? Oh yes “take kindly to it”.