The chief operating officer of Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office urged “every jurisdiction” to have a plan to threaten election officials with lawfare if they don’t want to rubber-stamp election results (even if the results are “off by one or two”).
The executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, David Becker, asked Gabe Sterling on Monday to detail “what might happen” if someone was “successful in delaying or denying certification [of election results].”
Sterling first argued that certification of an election is “ministerial” — meaning board members must effectively rubber-stamp election results despite their concerns — before rebuking newly passed rules that clarify county election board members can have access to election-related materials before certification.
The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) recently passed a rule (Rule 183-1-12-.02) that clarifies county election boards can fulfill their certification responsibility “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.” The SEB passed a separate rule (Rule 183-1-12-.12) that permits board members to review “all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”
“This idea that they have to have more and more and more paper information at the end of the process even though they’ve been a part of the process the entire time is a little, you know, disconcerting that people don’t understand the role,” Sterling said.
Sterling then
