Georgia election board proposes an 'inquiry' before certifying results

ATLANTA — The State Election Board started writing a new rule Wednesday that requires a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying Georgia elections, granting a request from a Republican county election board member who refused to sign off on this year’s presidential primary.

If certification rules are changed, local election board members could use them as a justification for voting against approving the results of upcoming elections, said state board member Sara Tindall Ghazal.

“The risk is using pretextual reasons to fail to certify when folks are not pleased with the results,” Ghazal, a Democratic Party representative on the board, said during its meeting Wednesday. “That is my concern — using excuses to fail to certify.”

Three Republican board members from Fulton and Gwinnett counties voted against certifying the presidential primary results, saying they wanted more detailed documentation beyond a broad summary of votes cast. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden both easily won their primaries.

“This is not a ministerial act where I take out a stamp and say, ‘It’s hereby certified.’ There’s a higher-order of mental processes that go on in this,” said Michael Heekin, a Republican Party appointee on the Fulton elections board who proposed the rule change. “If we go forward on this, I won’t get any more nasty letters from lawyers threatening to put me in jail.”

Certifying an election is a necessary step before results can be finalized. County election employees have said they couldn’t provide all the documentation sought by Republican election board members before Georgia’s certification deadline the Monday after election day. That deadline was moved up by Republican lawmakers in a 2021 election law after Trump lost the 2020 election.

If a county election board refused to certify a major election — such as a presidential race — its results could be delayed and disputed. The matter would likely have to be decided by the courts.

No county in Georgia has failed to certify in recent memory, but Republican-appointed board members in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Spalding counties opposed certifying local results last November or presidential results this March. They were outnumbered by other board members, mostly Democrats, who voted to certify the elections.

Questions about Georgia elections have been raised by Republicans since Trump lost in 2020 and claimed there was widespread fraud, which has never been found. He and his supporters have spent the past three years repeating allegations that the election was stolen, and the Republican majority in the General Assembly has passed changes to Georgia election laws every year since.

The State Election Board voted 2-1 on Wednesday to start the rulemaking process for the certification definition proposed by Heekin, a retired attorney. The rule will go through a review process and could be adopted by the board later this year. The rule change wouldn’t require a new state law.

“It’s ridiculous to ask somebody to certify something when they don’t know what the results were except for some documents that are provided to them,” said State Election Board Chairman John Fervier, a Republican appointee of Gov. Brian Kemp.

The county board members sought a wide variety of documents from their election staffs that they didn’t receive before the certification deadline, including voter check-in lists, poll open and close tapes, drop box ballot forms and detailed records of votes cast. The board members who refused to certify the presidential primary were Heekin, Julie Adams of Fulton and David Hancock of Gwinnett County.

The board also voted unanimously to work on writing a proposed rule on certification documentation. State law already calls for election officials to compare registration numbers with voter check-in forms and the number of ballots cast.

“It would be good for board members to have a clear roadmap,” said State Election Board member Ed Lindsey, a Republican appointee of the Georgia House. “I do think some legitimate issues have been raised. We need to look at what board members should be able to see and get before certification.”

Proposed Georgia certification definition

“‘Certify the result 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.”

Source: State Election Board rule proposal