Georgia Attorney General Says Election Board Is Operating Outside Its Authority

National Elections

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By The New York Times

Published 3 weeks ago on

September 20, 2024

The Georgia State Election Board faces mounting legal and political pressure over a controversial package of new election rules, which critics argue exceed the board's legal authority and could disrupt election processes just 45 days before the election. (Shutterstock)

The Georgia State Election Board is considering new election rules, including hand-counting ballots and expanded poll watcher access.
Georgia's attorney general and election officials warn that the board may be overstepping its legal authority with the proposed changes.
Critics argue the timing of these rule changes, just 45 days before the election, could cause confusion and undermine confidence.

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The Georgia State Election Board was set to vote Friday on a package of nearly a dozen rules that would change the way elections are conducted amid growing pressure from almost every level of Georgia state government advising the board that it is operating outside of its legal authority.

The rules under consideration include conservative policy goals like introducing hand-counting of ballots and expanding access for partisan poll watchers. The proposals come just 45 days before the election, after poll workers have been trained and ballots have been mailed to overseas voters.

On Thursday, the state attorney general’s office took the rare step of weighing in on the proposed rules, saying they “very likely exceed the board’s statutory authority.”

The fight comes as the election board is under increasing pressure from critics already concerned that it has been rewriting the rules of the game in a key swing state to favor former President Donald Trump, including potentially disrupting certification of the election if Trump loses in November. Last month, the board granted local officials new power over the election-certification process, a change that opponents say could sow chaos.

Elizabeth Young, a senior assistant attorney general, characterized five specific new election proposals as either exceeding the board’s legal reach or as an unnecessary redundancy, including the hand-counting proposal.

“There are thus no provisions in the statutes cited in support of these proposed rules that permit counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level prior to delivery to the election superintendent for tabulation,” Young wrote in a letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times. “Accordingly, these proposed rules are not tethered to any statute — and are, therefore, likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”

The legal advisory follows a letter from the secretary of state and a memorandum from the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, a nonpartisan collective of local election officials, both warning the election board that it was overstepping its authority.

The mounting legal advice from both the top law enforcement official in the state and the leading election officials sets up a choice for the election board Friday: Heed the mass of guidance or ignore it all to pass another package of election rules that include right-wing policy goals.

At a news conference Friday morning, Janelle King, a Republican appointee to the election board, pushed back against criticism that the board was making fundamental changes to the process so close to Election Day.

“I am absolutely considering time,” King said, “but I also consider the job that we have been tasked to do, and sometimes it doesn’t always agree.”

She continued, “We are raising the standard because the right to elect our leaders is a fundamental core principle of a republic.”

The Georgia State Election Board, once a bureaucratic backwater in the state election apparatus, has thrust itself into national headlines with a 3-2 right-wing majority that has aligned itself closely with rules rooted in election conspiracy theories.

Last month, the board passed a rule upending decades of settled Georgia law, allowing local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” investigation before certifying election results, a rule Democrats and election experts said could disrupt the certification process.

The board also approved an investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County, long a desire of right-wing election conspiracy theorists but far from the list of priorities of local election officials or the secretary of state.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Nick Corasaniti and Johnny Kauffman
c. 2024 The New York Times Company