Certifying elections is a required duty of county election boards in Georgia, and they’re not allowed to refuse to finalize results based on suspicions of miscounts or fraud, a Fulton County judge ruled Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney rejected claims brought by Fulton County election board member Julie Adams, who voted against certifying this spring’s presidential primary.
McBurney ruled that Georgia law requires certification and county election boards don’t have any discretion not to do so.
“If election superintendents were, as plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so — because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud — refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” McBurney wrote. “Our Constitution and our election code do not allow for that to happen.”
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
The ruling came as McBurney heard a challenge in court Tuesday to a new State Election Board requirement for an election night hand count of the number of ballots cast.
A rising number of Republican election board members have refused to certify elections since 2020. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found at least 19 board members across the state declined to certify elections.
Adams, a Republican Party appointee to the board, had sued after she declined to certify the presidential and general primaries because other county officials didn’t fulfill her requests for a long list of election documents before the certification deadline. She was outvoted by the Democratic majority of the Fulton election board, which certified the primaries.
Adams said she was pleased with a part of the ruling that ensures county election board members receive election documents before certification votes.
“Having access to the entire election process will allow every board member to know and have confidence in the true and accurate results before the time for certification,” Adams said. “The only way to ensure that the results are accurate is for board members such as myself to be fully knowledgeable about all aspects of the election.”
McBurney ruled election information should be promptly provided to Adams and election board members, but any delay in receiving information isn’t a basis for refusing to certify elections.
All votes must be certified, and election boards don’t have the ability to exclude individual voters or precincts, he wrote.
When there are concerns about fraud or abuse, Georgia law allows candidates to file an election contest in court, McBurney said. It’s not up to election board members to adjudicate those claims.
Quoting the wizard Gandalf from “The Lord of the Rings,” McBurney wrote the law’s requirement that election board members “shall” certify means it is mandatory.
“As only lawyers (and judges) can, we have muddied and mangled the meaning of the word ‘shall’ in our business,” McBurney wrote in a footnote. “To users of common parlance, ‘shall’ connotes instruction or command: You shall not pass!”
McBurney is also overseeing several other cases related to election certification and rules.
He hasn’t yet ruled in a lawsuit filed by Democrats contesting a State Election Board rule calling for a “reasonable inquiry” before county election boards certify elections.
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
Credit: Seeger Gray / AJC
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