ATLANTA — A trial date has been set for a lawsuit brought by Democrats challenging two new rules passed this year by Georgia's State Election Board.
The suit alleges that the new rules, revolving around the process for certifying election results at the county level, could "turn the straightforward and mandatory act of certification" into a "broad license for individual board members to hunt for purported election irregularities of any kind, potentially delaying certification."
Judge Robert C.I. McBurney, who also oversaw the special purpose grand jury that investigated alleged 2020 election interference by former President Donald Trump and several others who were later indicted in Fulton County, will conduct a bench trial beginning on October 1 at 9 a.m.
An order on the bench trial said it would be livestreamed.
The order also authorized the Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party to intervene as parties in the case. In a timeline laid out by Judge McBurney, they and the State Election Board will have until September 16 to file a response, the Democrats will have to file a trial brief of no more than 30 pages by September 23, and the State Election Board (and Republican intervenors, if they wish) must file their trial brief with the same length limit by September 25.
"These rules will directly impact the manner in which local election boards manage and certify the fast approaching November elections which, this year, include a Presidential contest. Time is therefore of the essence," McBurney's order stated.
You can see the full order, as well as the Democrats' complaint, at the bottom of this page.
More about the lawsuit
The petition, filed in Fulton County, claims the State Election Board has tried to "upend the required process for certifying election results."
Some of the objections listed in the lawsuit state that under the new rules, local election officials will have to conduct "a reasonable inquiry" before the results are certified and permit county board members to examine election-related documentation created while elections are conducted.
The plaintiffs want the court to "prevent chaos" in the November election. The suit further states that Georgia law has already established a place for election contests -- which is a separate process done outside of certifying results. They are also concerned that a "reasonable inquiry" could delay the certification process.
"If election officials have concerns about possible election irregularities, they are free to voice those concerns at the time of certification, so that they may be considered and adjudicated, by judges, in any subsequent election contest," the lawsuit states. "But they may not point to those election irregularities (or anything else) as a basis for delaying certification or denying it entirely. Absent a valid court order, certification by the deadline is mandatory."
More about the State Election Board
The State Election Board's actions have taken on a higher profile recently with a conservative majority of the board more receptive to activist demands -- largely tied to continued anger over the 2020 election result in Georgia -- for changes to election administration rules.
Former President Trump highlighted the three board members -- Dr. Janice Johnston, Janelle King and Rick Jeffares -- who have steered the board toward endorsing various rule changes submitted by the public, calling them "pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory."
The board has five members: one appointed by the state House, one chosen by the state Senate, one each from the Republican and Democratic parties, and a nonpartisan chair selected by the General Assembly or by the governor if the General Assembly is not in session when there is a vacancy.
Conservative media personality King was appointed by the House in May, sealing Republican partisan control. Dr. Johnston, a retired obstetrician and frequent critic of elections in deeply Democratic Fulton County, was appointed by the state GOP in 2022. And Jeffares, a former lawmaker close to Trump-aligned Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, was appointed earlier this year by the Senate.
In August, the board voted 3-2 to ask state Attorney General Chris Carr to investigate the Fulton County government over the 2020 election, seeking to reopen an inquiry closed in May.