Atlanta — Today, the Trump-backed Georgia State Election Board passed even more changes to Georgia election rules, including one that empowers local county elections officials to deny the certification of election results. Reporting from ProPublica revealed one of the rule changes passed today that alters how election results are certified was crafted and advanced by Trump-connected election deniers. Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo responded with the following statement:

“Trump and his MAGA allies have taken over the Georgia State Election Board to try and give a veneer of legality to their illegal scheme to disrupt the certification of Georgia’s 2024 election results. Many of Trump’s key electron denier allies and Republican Party operatives are behind these illegal, anti-freedom changes to Georgia election rules, and it’s all with the goal of helping Trump win the Peach State, even if he doesn’t earn a majority of Georgians’ votes. We'll have to turnout to vote in massive numbers to ensure their expected claims of fraud ring hollow.”

Today’s rule changes come after the Georgia State Election Board passed rules changes less than two weeks ago. One of those rule changes gave local county elections officials the power to delay or obstruct certification of election results if they believe there are any discrepancies – essentially making certification discretionary. That rule conflicts with Georgia law, which states in multiple places that local election board officials shall perform their duties – meaning their duties are mandatory, not discretionary.

Ethical Issues: On Friday afternoon, a former Georgia elections official submitted an ethics complaint against the Trump-backed members of the Georgia State Election Board to Gov. Brian Kemp, who has the authority to investigate and remove election board members who have violated Georgia law. The complaint lays out in detail how the state election board members took actions which “failed to uphold the laws and regulations of the State of Georgia.” It also raised a potential conflict of interest with election board member Rick Jeffares suggesting himself for a job in a potential second Trump administration, should Trump win the 2024 election.

Background on Unlawful Meeting of Election Board: On July 12, Republican members of the Georgia State Election Board went rogue to set up a meeting without public notice and seemingly without input from the Board’s Chair. Their actions were not in compliance with Georgia law which requires the Board Chair to give prior notice to each Board Member of the time and place of each meeting. The rules they tried to ram through in their unlawful meeting are the very rules that they later held another meeting to engage in a do-over vote and passed after a lawsuit alleged the meeting violated state law.

Background on the MAGA Certification Strategy: The MAGA efforts to change Georgia’s election certification rules, being pushed by the GA GOP and RNC operatives and approved by State Election Board members, build on other efforts by Trump allies to obstruct certification. Fulton County Election Board member Julie Adams filed a suit challenging a Georgia law that prevents local officials from refusing certification. She’s represented by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute in her lawsuit and also works with the Election Integrity Network, founded by Cleta Mitchell, who joined Trump’s infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In 2020, a Coffee County elections official delayed certifying President Joe Biden’s win in Georgia and refused to validate the recount results, citing MAGA-backed election conspiracies.

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