Georgia will begin a courtroom battle on Tuesday, October 1st, to determine the winner of the swing state in the U.S. presidential election, one of several high-stakes conflicts set to unfold on the eve of the November 5th election. Currently, there are only five weeks left until the election.
Georgia is expected to play a key battleground role in the showdown between former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has sued the Georgia State Election Board, claiming that recent rule changes in the state could cause confusion during the certification of vote counts, affecting the official announcement of election results nationwide.
The State Election Board, supported by the Republican Party, argues that the case should be dismissed, or else they will argue that the new wording complies with state law.
On Monday, the Democrats in Fulton County filed a new lawsuit, questioning the State Election Board’s earlier 3-2 vote requiring manual counting in local precincts.
An organization supported by local Republicans has also filed a lawsuit against the State Election Board over the new certification and manual counting rules. Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State and Attorney General have also opposed the manual counting rules. Critics argue that the new rules could delay result reporting and compromise the security of the ballots.
The Republican majority members of the Election Board defend the change, saying it helps ensure the accuracy of the vote count.
The courtroom debate on Tuesday will take place at the Fulton County Superior Court.
It is not yet clear when the court will schedule the trials for these cases, which will be conducted by the judge alone without a jury.
Meanwhile, a Republican member of the Fulton County Election Board, Julie Adams, is filing another lawsuit demanding the court to grant her the power to decide whether to certify the election results.
Adams is represented by the conservative America First Policy Institute. She believes she has the right to access documents and data to independently verify the accuracy of the vote count. In a dispute over access to election materials during the primaries in May, Adams voted against certifying the primary results.
The DNC intervened to prevent Adams from suing, arguing that her action was aimed at delaying the case scheduled for trial this week.
In the 2020 election, Trump and his allies raised questions about the accuracy of the election results and made efforts to obstruct or at least delay the confirmation of Joe Biden as the winner of the presidential election by states and Congress. During this period, local election officials played a crucial role in certifying the vote counts.
In August of this year, the Georgia State Election Board approved new wording regarding the certification process with a 3-2 vote. The revised rules state that “certify” means confirming the vote count results as “true and accurate” after a reasonable inquiry. The Board also grants county election officials the right to “examine all election related documentation.”
The DNC argues that under Georgia law, local officials have a “mandatory” duty to certify. They claim that any expansion of these officials’ limited powers, such as confirming the “numerical accuracy” of the vote count and resolving discrepancies between precinct tallies and voter numbers, is illegal.
Challengers threaten that under the new rules, Georgia voters could face the risk of their votes not being counted due to delays. Democrats state that in Georgia, the Secretary of State has a legal obligation to report the results to the Governor by November 22, and the results from uncertified counties will not be included.
During the process of requesting the dismissal of the lawsuits, the State Election Board and the Republican National Committee argue that the DNC and other plaintiffs lack legal basis, and the lawsuit involves potential interpretations of rules in the future, and the new wording does not authorize local officials to delay certification, so the court need not take any action.
In August 2023, Trump faced charges in Georgia for participating in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. Democratic President Biden won in Georgia by approximately 12,000 votes that year.
In March of this year, the judge presiding over the case rejected Trump and several other co-defendants’ motion seeking to have the prosecutor, Fani Willis, declared ineligible. Trump and his co-defendants appealed the decision of Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, and the Georgia Court of Appeals stated that they would hear the appeal on October 4th. On June 5th, the Georgia Court of Appeals announced a freeze on all litigation procedures involving former President Trump and co-defendants in election interference cases. It is almost certain that this case will not be heard before the U.S. November election.
(This article referenced reporting from Bloomberg)