Georgia election officials have a duty to certify results, judge rules
A Georgia judge ruled Monday that certifying election results is a mandatory duty for county election officials.
In his opinion, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney stated that “certifying election results…is mandatory” and “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”
Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Elections and Registration (BRE), filed the lawsuit against Fulton County on Sept. 12. This was her second lawsuit following her refusal to certify the results of the county’s May primary elections. McBurney dismissed the first case in early September for procedural reasons without making a judgment on the role of county election officials.
In both suits, Adams argued that while county boards have a duty to certify election results, individual members do not, allowing them to vote for or against certification. She asked the court to declare that certifying election results is a discretionary, not mandatory, duty, and to allow board members full access to election materials.
Adams had refused to certify the May primary results after she was denied information that she claimed she needed in order to certify. The information she requested included a list of all registered voters, voter check-in lists from each precinct, and a list of all voters who requested, received and/or returned absentee ballots. After being told by the board’s director that the data was not readily available and not needed for certification, Adams filed a lawsuit claiming that she was being prevented from performing her duties.
McBurney’s Oct. 14 order stated that “if election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so — because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud — refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced. Our Constitution and our Election Code do not allow for that to happen.” [Continue reading…]