FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 1, 2024
Harris-Walz campaign lawyer Marc Elias, anti-Election Integrity activists have dispatched their attorneys to GA to prevent election officials from following the law
Arlington, VA – A Fulton County Superior Court judge, Robert C. McBurney, today is hearing two cases consolidated into a single matter for his determination.
1. The first involves rules recently passed by the State Election Board (SEB) establishing standard procedures for counties to comply with existing state law and ultimately ensure fair, accurate, and transparent elections.
- Rule defining “Certify the results of a primary, election, or runoff,” or words to that effect, means to attest, after reasonable inquiry that the tabulation and canvassing of the election are complete and accurate and that the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.”
- Rule implementing the statutory requirements to reconcile (i.e. match) precinct returns (registered voters and the number of ballots cast) prior to the certification deadline.
The case was filed by several individuals, some of whom are Democrat county election officials, as well as the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, arguing that the duties of the Georgia election board members are ministerial’, rather than discretionary. The SEB is represented by the Attorney General Chris Carr, with intervenors Republican Party of Georgia and the Republican National Committee.
2. The second case involves a complaint filed in May by Julie Adams, a member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (BRE), who was nominated by the Fulton County Republican Party and was sworn in as a member of the 5-member BRE earlier this year. Her lawsuit arises from the policy of the Fulton County Supervisor of Elections, supported by the Democrat majority on the BRE, that neither Ms. Adams nor any BRE member is authorized to have access to any election materials, procedures, documents, processes or other information necessary for her to discharge her statutory duties as a member of the BRE.
Opposing Ms. Adams are Fulton County, the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic National Committee, who argue that Ms. Adams’ duties, and that of all BRE members, are ‘ministerial’ only (ceremonial) and that neither she nor other BRE members are entitled to access to election and voting information, materials or processes.
National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli issued the following statement:
“The most basic responsibility of election officials is to ensure the election count in their jurisdiction is correct. In spite of this fact on which Americans overwhelmingly agree, Kamala Harris’ own campaign lawyer continues to try and block election officials everywhere—including in Georgia—from implementing procedures to achieve the most accurate vote count possible within the law and within the timeline for certification. One has to wonder why?
“The Georgia State Election Board is to be commended for continuing to improve Georgia election procedures in a manner entirely consistent with state law. We call on the Court to acknowledge as much and to further acknowledge that the work that Election Boards and Superintendents do in Georgia requires skill, dedication and judgement and is NOT—as the radical Progressive Democrats continue to spew—a “ministerial” duty to rubber stamp whatever may be brought before them.”
Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation Hans von Spakovsky issued the following statement:
“Prior to serving as an attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, I served for five years as a member of the Fulton County, Georgia, Board of Registration and Elections. The citizen members of county boards have a fiduciary duty under state law to administer their elections in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws and to correct any errors, mistakes, or discrepancies that may occur. Any claim that their duties are just ‘ministerial’ is legally wrong and it is frivolous to assert that rules passed by the State Board of Elections implementing the requirements of state law to reconcile any discrepancies or errors are somehow unlawful.”
President and CEO of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (“RITE”) Derek Lyons issued the following statement:
“These cases are election disinformation. Liberal activists who say they are protecting democracy are, in fact, engaged in a full court press to incapacitate the officials charged with protecting the integrity of our elections. Their goal is to immunize the election tallies of unelected precinct-level poll workers from oversight by county-level elected officials. Anyone who understands election administration knows that precinct-level workers make mistakes. And anyone who really wants to promote honest, confidence-inspiring elections should welcome county officials’ engagement, not use the courts to intimidate and silence them.”
Despite state statute § 21-2-493(b), which explicitly states that if the number of ballots exceeds the number of voters in any precinct “such excess shall be deemed a discrepancy and palpable error and shall be investigated” prior to recording votes, Progressive Democrats are melting down to stop Georgia from following its own laws while intimidating election officials into violating their sworn oaths. GA Code § 21-2-70
Their novel legal theory that bipartisan election boards lack legal authority to access election records to confirm the accuracy of election results ignores the statutory responsibilities conferred on members of the election boards in Georgia to “examine all the registration and primary or election documents whatever relating to such precinct”. GA Code § 21-2-493 (b)
No, the role of election officials is not “ministerial” or “ceremonial”—by statute they are required to ensure (and investigate if necessary) that elections are free from “fraud, deceit, or abuse” and that the results are accurate prior to certification.
In signing a certification, county election board members (and superintendents) attest subject to felony prosecution that the vote count is accurate.
The existing statute, from which the “reconciliation” rule in question is derived virtually word for word, can be found here:
Myth vs. Fact: Georgia State Election Board Rules
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between the American Principles Project (APP) and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, was organized to combat federal H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 legislation and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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