Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp has requested legal guidance from Attorney General Christopher Carr on whether he has the authority to remove members of the state election board. The inquiry comes in response to a series of controversial new rules passed by three right-wing members of the five-person board, raising concerns about the integrity and fairness of the upcoming election.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Kemp’s request follows the board’s recent decision to implement new regulations that impose additional requirements on county election boards to certify their results. With the new rules introduced just under 100 days before the November 5 election, county boards must conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying the election results. However, the rules fail to clarify what constitutes a “reasonable inquiry,” leaving the definition vague and open to interpretation.
In addition to the inquiry requirement, the new rules mandate that county election boards must hold a meeting to verify their vote count on the Friday following election day. This deadline comes before the ballot return cutoff for overseas and military voters, raising concerns about the potential disenfranchisement of these groups.
The three right-wing board members responsible for pushing these rules—Janelle King, Rick Jeffares, and Janice Johnston—recently received praise from former President Donald Trump, who lauded them as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.” Trump, who has been charged in Fulton County, Georgia, alongside his former attorney Rudy Giuliani and others with election interference, continues to falsely claim that he lost Georgia to President Joe Biden due to widespread election fraud—a claim for which there is no evidence.
Democratic Representative Lucy McBath has condemned the board’s new rules, describing them as part of a “concerted effort to subvert democracy and move us backward.” She criticized the rules for creating unnecessary barriers to counting votes and certifying elections, suggesting that they are designed to enable Trump to disrupt the electoral process once again.
The Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit challenging the new rules, arguing that they could lead to delays in certification and spark disputes over the vote count. The lawsuit has received support from Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, with Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager, asserting, “Certifying an election is not a choice, it’s the law. A few unelected extremists can’t just decide not to count your vote.”
Despite the growing opposition, Janelle King, one of the right-wing board members, has dismissed the criticism, stating, “I’m going to continue to do what’s right and let the Democrats play the political games. There’s nothing we’re doing that will impact certification.”
Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon has defended the rule changes as “common sense rules that ensure election integrity,” arguing that they do not interfere with voting rights or place undue burdens on election workers. McKoon emphasized that the new rules aim to enhance transparency, accountability, and accuracy in the election process.
As the legal and political battle over these new rules intensifies, Governor Kemp’s request for legal guidance underscores the growing tensions surrounding election integrity and the future of Georgia’s electoral process.