Georgia’s Democracy in Peril: Election Looms Amid Rising Threats

“The Georgia State Election Board is very frightening,” said Wini Cox, a member of the Georgia Democratic Party and former Fulton County board member. “They’re setting themselves up — if one of the Republican candidates doesn’t win — to stop the election from being certified. And that is the main concern.”

The Georgia State Election Board has gained a lot of attention recently for passing controversial rules that could delay the certification of results. However, the GOP board members aren’t the only state officials threatening Georgia’s democracy. 

Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has signed multiple voter suppression bills into law over the last few years. Also, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) has pushed his own anti-democratic agenda through a noncitizen voting audit and voter purges.

The actions each of these actors have taken in recent years all contribute to what has become a tumultuous time for democracy in the Peach State.  

MAGA Republicans Take Control of the Georgia State Election Board

The three MAGA-Republicans on the State Election Board — Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares, and Janelle King — have passed multiple rules in the last month that could threaten democracy and voting rights.

These board members have been praised by former President Donald Trump for passing rules like this, being called “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”

In July, these three board members held an illegal meeting to pass new controversial election policies. After nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight sued them for doing so, the board withdrew the rules.

During meetings in August, the board passed multiple rules that could delay or even prevent the certification of election results at the county level. 

Johnston argued — in both August meetings — that the board can’t, in good conscience, certify an election unless they are certain it was conducted fairly and accurately. 

“Not all elections are certified,” Johnston said. “There are ballot battles and there are elections that need to be addressed carefully, and there may be issues that prevent a board from certifying.”

Each rule was passed with a 3-2 vote as the board also includes Sara Tindall Ghazal — the sole Democratic member of the board — and Chair John Fervier, who is a Republican but serves as a swing vote.  

Michelle McClafferty, an attorney who represents Fair Fight, a Georgia voting rights group, noted all of the board members are relatively new, except for Ghazal.

“We’ve had this board go from infrequent meetings where they would hear cases that were four or five years old to taking on this incredibly proactive rulemaking approach, which has led us to where we are now,” McClafferty said.

Ghazal’s views differ significantly from the other board members. She said if there is an issue with the vote count, like a disparity between the number of votes cast and the number of unique voters, then that is reported out to the proper authorities, but the board needs to still certify the results in the meantime.

“It is up to a judge to determine the proper procedures at that point,” Ghazal said. “It is not the role of the county board to try to change vote totals. It is the role of the county board to certify the totals and allow the judicial process to be triggered as an election contest cannot occur until this is certified.”

Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo compared not certifying election results after the count has been completed to not giving someone a driver’s license after they’ve already passed their driver’s test.

“If they just arbitrarily decide not to give you the driver’s license because you’re gay or black or because you don’t look right or because you don’t share the same political views, that would be outrageous,” Groh-Wargo said. “That is a bureaucratic, clerical process.”

The Democratic National Committee, the Georgia Democratic Party and voters filed a lawsuit against the board on Aug. 26, challenging what they call the “reasonable inquiry rule” passed on Aug. 6 and the “examination rule” passed on Aug. 19. 

The “reasonable inquiry rule” states that a county board can only certify an election “after reasonable inquiry that the tabulation and canvassing of the election are complete and accurate and that the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.”

The “examination rule” allows individual county election board members to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.” 

On Aug. 21, the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO), which is composed of over 500 county election workers and officials across the state, asked the board to stop passing last-minute rule changes.

“We are already in the midst of extensive training preparation for our poll workers and preparing for one of the biggest and most scrutinized elections in years,” GAVREO President W. Travis Doss said in a statement. 

In the next meeting on Sept. 20, the State Election Board plans to consider and vote on multiple rule proposals — including one that would require three different election workers to hand count ballots at a polling location, even after they’ve already been counted by a ballot scanner.

Gov. Kemp Has Signed Multiple Voter Suppression Laws

In 2021, Kemp signed a 98-page omnibus voter suppression law, Senate Bill 202, which has been challenged numerous times by pro-voting groups.

S.B. 202’s changes include shortening the window to request mail-in ballots, limiting the number of drop boxes in each county and requiring voters to include ID numbers — like a driver’s license number — on both their application for a mail-in ballot and their completed ballot.

One of the most infamous provisions — a “line-warming ban” that prohibited individuals from handing out food and water to voters in line even if they were more than 150 feet away from a polling place — was temporarily blocked by a judge in August 2023. The next month, Republican intervenors and state officials appealed the decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Then, in May 2024, Kemp signed three voter suppression laws that the General Assembly passed on the last day of the legislative session. 

Senate Bill 189 makes it easier to challenge a voter’s eligibility, House Bill 974 allows any member of the public to access someone’s ballot and House Bill 1207 requires all election workers to be U.S. citizens and eliminates the number of election machines per voter at every polling location.

Pro-voting groups New Georgia Project and A. Philip Randolph Institute filed a lawsuit on July 30 challenging S.B. 189, arguing it violates the National Voter Registration Act. 

The groups claimed under this law, officials in Chatham, Forsyth, Gwinnett and Spalding counties “purged voters based on unvetted documentation and unreliable information provided by private citizens, such as screenshots of purported property records or social media posts.”

Cox, who lives in Spalding County, said her county board — which is supposed to be nonpartisan — has been subject to a MAGA takeover, including the board’s chair Ben Johnson, who is a believer in the QAnon conspiracy. 

“These people are answering to the Republican Party,” Cox said.

Secretary of State Raffensperger Has Also Joined the Fray

Since he took office, Raffensperger has been pushing for the removal of “ineligible” voters from registration lists.

In 2019, his first year as secretary of state, he purged 309,000 individuals — 4% of all Georgia voters. Two years later, in 2021, his office purged another 100,000 voters.

Then, in July 2024, he announced that he would be conducting an audit of “potential” noncitizens registered to vote. 

“This is a vital step in maintaining election security and integrity in Georgia,” Raffensperger said in a statement. “We are double checking to make sure that if any noncitizens attempt to register to vote, they will not be able to vote unless they prove that they are U.S. citizens.”

This is part of the larger Republican agenda to push the noncitizen voting narrative to sow doubt in the accuracy and security of the 2024 election. Most of the time, they cannot provide any solid proof of widespread noncitizen voting impacting the results of an election.

In fact, Raffensperger previously conducted an audit of Georgia’s voter rolls in 2022 and found that over 1,000 noncitizens attempted to register to vote, but they were unable to due to safeguards in place. None of them cast a ballot.

How it Will All Impact the 2024 Election

The 2024 election is less than 70 days away, and a lot could change in Georgia before then. 

Nearly half of Georgia voters are concerned the 2024 election will not be fair and accurate and believe there was widespread voter fraud in 2020, according to an Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC) poll conducted in June.

Political party affiliation played a large role — over 76% of Democrats reported they were very confident in the 2024 election and less than 9% of Republicans did. 

Georgia was a crucial swing state in the 2020 and 2022 elections, and likely will be in 2024 as well, so these voters could decide who the next president is.

But, voters who have faith in elections and want to strengthen democracy in the state are not completely powerless here. In a Fair Fight press conference this week, Groh-Wargo told voters what action they can take.

“Check your voter registration, and get your friends and family registered. Make your plan to vote. If you need to request a mail ballot, do it now.” Groh-Wargo said. “Get involved in your community by poll working and volunteering.” 

She also said that voters should push for change directly. She explained they can call Kemp’s office and tell him to hold the State Election Board accountable for their actions, as well as get involved by providing public comment at election board meetings and participating in civic engagement.

“Make your voice heard,” Groh-Wargo said.