A new election measure in Georgia could delay the certification of the 2024 election, an official has warned.
In 2020, President Joe Biden flipped Georgia from Donald Trump by 11,779 votes, or 0.24 percent of the 5 million ballots cast, making Trump the first Republican to lose the state in decades. The result was confirmed by a hand count but some Republicans have refused to verify certain elections since over unverified claims about election irregularities.
Now, the Republican-controlled State Election Board voted 3-1 on Tuesday to advance a proposal initiated by Cobb County Republican Party Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs that would give authorities more power to dispute election results in instances where there is a discrepancy in vote total tallied and the number of votes cast at precincts.
In these cases, local election officials could request document disclosure prior to certifying the election, a step taken to finalize election results.
Meanwhile, another potential rule from Republican Fulton election board member Michael Heekin would require what is described as a reasonable inquiry before county election boards certify elections.
State Election Board Chairman John Fervier suggested a list of documents be provided before certification, such as statements of votes cast, vote total recap forms and lists of voters, but the suggestion was resisted by the board.
“I just believe there needs to be a list of documents that the board of registration and elections gets to see so it’s not a never-ending search for ‘I need this document, I need that document,’” he said.
Sara Tindall Ghazal, the only Democratic-appointed board member, voted against the rule. She said the law requires that certification is completed before candidates can go to court to contest an election.
“Under your rule, a board member could refuse to certify until they see all of those documents,” Ghazal told Grubbs. “Every document is not necessary for the certification of an election. The whole point is to make sure there are not more votes than ballots and not more ballots than voters checked in.”
However, others have championed the potential changes. “We must make every effort to ensure every vote is counted right the first time,” Grubbs told the State Election Board. “I don’t understand why we don’t want more security in our procedures.”
“Members of the state election board have expressed concerns about excluding entire precincts from the certification and fears that voters would be disenfranchised,” she also said. “This proposed rule would not allow for that because Georgia law describes the steps that must be taken when discrepancies are found and how the returns from precincts with discrepancies will be counted justly.”
The board also moved forward with two other rule proposals, one that would require poll workers to hand-count the number of ballots cast after polls close, and another which would require counties to publish a report showing and explaining vote-counting discrepancies on their websites after elections.
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