Republican Ga. Election Board member defends rule changes
ATLANTA - A Republican member of Georgia’s election board is defending controversial new election rules in the state.
The five-member board recently passed new rules to give county election boards the power to conduct inquiries before certifying election results and to investigate ballot counts.
Despite other election officials voicing their thoughts against the changes, one member described it as the board is, quote, cleaning up the process.
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“I’m not fixing a problem that does not exist,” board member Janelle King said. “Actually, we’re preventing problems from happening in the future.”
After citing problems she said some candidates had reported complained about, she said:
“So this is something that we’ve seen, and I don’t think it’s something that’s major. I think it’s a matter of process.”
However, both Democrats and Republicans have criticized the rules, with Democrats suing to block the rules, warning it could lead to post election chaos, while Georgia’s secretary of state, a Republican, warned that any last-minute changes may undermine voter confidence and burden election workers.
One new rule requires county election officials to create a list of voters in any particular election and to examine them for duplicates. If any duplicate votes are found, the rule requires that an investigation be launched.
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No votes would be counted from that precinct until the results of each individual investigation are presented to a county board.
Election officials across the state have expressed that the rule would prevent counties from reporting election results in a timely manner with some voter rights activists also concerned that the new rule could disenfranchise voters.
The Georgia State Election Board voted to approve a new rule that supporters say is necessary to ensure that votes are properly counted but that critics argue could be used to cause chaos.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock says, “They’re preparing themselves and creating a pretext for why they shouldn’t certify an election if they don’t like the results. This is not what it means to be American. This is not who we are, this is not what the American democratic experiment in self-governance is all about.”
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This new rule approval follows the approval of a rule earlier that requires county election officials to make a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results - though the rule didn’t define what that means.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who’s a Republican, said after that rule change, “Misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards. Georgia voters reject this 11th hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board.”
Raffensperger is referring to the fact that the State Election Board members are appointed, not elected.
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