ATLANTA — In a new court filing, a group of Democrats attacked newly-advanced election rule changes passed by Georgia’s State Election Board.
Two new rules, if upheld, “would create chaos and risk disenfranchising large numbers of Georgia’s voters," the group wrote in a Monday court brief. They asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is handling the case, to limit the scope of the new rules or declare them invalid.
The controversy comes in the final run up to the November general election.
In their own court filing earlier this month, the State Election Board disputed the allegations and asked that the plaintiff’s petition “be dismissed in its entirety.”
The plaintiffs are specifically challenging two newly-advanced rule changes by the State Election Board that focus on the process by which local election boards will certify results.
“One rule (known as the ‘Reasonable Inquiry Rule’) requires election officials to conduct a ‘reasonable inquiry’ prior to certification,” they wrote in a Monday court filing. “The other (known as the ‘Examination Rule’) requires officials to allow individual county election board members ‘to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections.’”
Plaintiffs argued these rules give local election officials “broad license for individual board members to delay certification or block it altogether in a hunt for purported election irregularities.”
The controversy comes as a conservative three-member majority of the State Election Board has moved to alter state election rules ahead of the November general election.
Speaking at a recent meeting where the Board approved another rule change – requiring a hand count of ballots by three separate poll workers before reporting results – Republican Board appointee Janelle King said the rule changes were aimed at ensuring the validity of the outcome.
“What I don’t want to do is set a precedent that we are OK with speed over accuracy,” she said.
Opponents of the State Election Board’s recent actions – including Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – argue the changes come too close to Election Day, risking confusion and delays.
“Some of the counties have already gone through all their poll worker training,” he said at an event last week. “When you start changing what those procedures would be, then you’d have to come back and do additional training. So that just adds an element of risk because they’re not trained as long and as many times.”
The State Election Board’s response to this latest court challenge is expected later this week. A trial is scheduled to being on October 1.