Judge Rules Georgia Election Board Must Certify Election Results

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Facts

  • Fulton County, Ga., Judge Robert McBurney ruled on Tuesday that local election boards cannot delay or decline the certification of results, writing that if they were 'free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge,' voters 'would be silenced.'[1]
  • McBurney added that while election officials are allowed to investigate ballot counts, 'any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.'[2][3]
  • The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by lawyers from the America First Policy Institute, which represented Republican Fulton County board member Julie Adams and her request that certification be discretionary.[1]
  • Adams declined to certify presidential primary election results in March, claiming she was 'unable to fulfill her oath of office' due to being unable to access the election documents she had requested.[4]
  • Georgia's state election board has passed a series of election rules, including one last month requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots after they've been counted by machines. Another passed in August allows local boards to conduct a 'reasonable inquiry' before certifying results.[5][2]
  • However, multiple lawsuits have been filed against these new rules, with Judge McBurney set to hear arguments in a challenge to the hand-counting rule on Tuesday.[3][4]

Sources: [1]NPR Online News, [2]Guardian, [3]FOX News, [4]The Hill and [5]Breitbart.

Narratives

  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Mother Jones. Trump-aligned Republicans are already trying to meddle in the 2024 election, but thankfully, Judge McBurney has stepped in to uphold the law. As many election boards in states like Georgia are full of Trump supporters willing to do anything to win, it's more important than ever for the justice system to keep them at bay.
  • Republican narrative, as provided by teleSURenglish and Timesofisrael. There is a very good reason Republicans want tighter ballot certification rules, and it's the opposite of stealing elections. Democrats are openly pushing back against attempts to take non-US citizens off of voter rolls, which shows that they want illegal votes to be cast. With this in mind, the recent actions taken by local Republicans make a lot more sense.
  • Nerd narrative, as provided by Townhall. There is a 50% chance that there will be faithless electors in the 2024 US presidential election, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Predictions