Georgia Republicans Challenge Election Board Rules Passed by MAGA Members
Two Georgia Republicans and a non-profit organization filed a lawsuit challenging anti-democratic rules passed by the MAGA members of the State Election Board (SEB).
This lawsuit follows a similar case the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Georgia Democratic Party filed last month against the election board.
The Republicans challenged two of the same Georgia election board rules that the Democrats did — one stating officials can only certify an election after conducting a “reasonable inquiry” into the results and another allowing county election members to examine all election-related documents. Both of these rules were passed in August, and one went into effect on Sept. 4 and the other will on Sept. 16.
The plaintiffs — former state legislator Scot Turner (R), Turner’s organization Eternal Vigilance Action and Chatham County election board member James Hall (R) — also challenged the constitutionality of two additional rules passed in August that went into effect on Sept. 4.
One rule required voters who drop off an absentee ballot at a drop box location to provide a signature and photo ID. The other rule requires video surveillance at ballot drop boxes and states that ballots placed in non-monitored drop boxes should not be counted.
All of these rules have been pushed by the three Republicans on the five-member board who have said they view election certification not as a ministerial or mandatory duty, but as a discretionary act, and have been praised by former President Donald Trump.
The GOP plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit that the unelected board members’ rules are “an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority” and “that the General Assembly lacks authority to convey any legislative rulemaking to the SEB.”
Specifically, they claimed the board members do not have the authority to pass rules that “change the role or authority of any superintendent regarding the certification of election results” and violate “the statutory process regarding the availability of absentee ballot drop boxes.”
The plaintiffs claimed these rules not only violated the state’s election laws but also “therefore fundamentally altered Georgians’ voting rights.”
The Republicans asked a state court to strike down these new rules and all SEB rules as unconstitutional and block the state of Georgia and the SEB from enforcing them.
The state has not yet responded to the lawsuit.