Don’t you dare. That was the message the Georgia attorney general’s office sent to the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) on Thursday, one day before the board met to vote on another slate of unprecedented election rules just weeks before Election Day. The last-minute changes, spawned from conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, drew vehement opposition from voters, election workers and elected officials from both sides of the aisle. And yet, a three-member majority of the board, with known ties to the MAGA movement, defied the highest-ranking attorney in the state. Now Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr must uphold the rule of law.
The SEB is an unelected body charged with legal responsibilities that, at their core, are intended to result in fair, legal, and orderly elections in Georgia. Its five members are appointed by the governor, the two major political parties and the two chambers of the state Legislature, respectively; currently, the board consists of four Republicans and one Democrat. For the better part of the last decade, Georgia’s SEB accomplished little, plodding along through years-old investigations into rarely substantiated accusations of voter misconduct. The board largely ignored rulemaking regarding uniform election administration across the state. But, like many things election-related in Georgia, the SEB’s activities changed dramatically following the 2020 election and accompanying fervor around the “Big Lie.”
The SEB’s latest round of rulemaking reflects complete ignorance of the realities of election administration.
The Georgia secretary of state, previously the SEB’s chair, was removed from that post in 2021 via a voter suppression bill signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. As previous Republican members of the board resigned, were removed, or reached the end of their term, they were replaced by right-wing extremists. The three board members, the most recent of whom was appointed in May, have drawn praise from former President Trump and other MAGA leaders known for conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 elections. Indeed, at a recent rally in Atlanta, the former president singled out the trio by name, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
Those three members quickly leveraged their new majority to implement the MAGA agenda. They have held an unadvertised “emergency meeting” at the state capitol in violation of Georgia’s open meetings laws. They ignored the pleas of local election officials to stop imposing new rules on the eve of a consequential election. And they have passed regulations that exceed their authority, conflict with state law, and threaten to throw the fast-approaching election into chaos.
The SEB’s latest round of rulemaking reflects complete ignorance of the realities of election administration. Over opposition from the Republican secretary of state, the Republican attorney general, the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, voting rights activists, and Georgia citizens on both sides of the aisle, the board, on a 2-3 vote, passed a rule that mandates hand-counting ballots on election night — or in the days after — in every precinct of the state. The new rule requires poll workers to open ballot boxes at the precincts, remove and pile the ballots into stacks of 50, hand-count the ballots (by three poll workers), and reconcile that hand count with the totals on the ballot scanner.
Worse still, the three-member majority passed these rules a mere 25 days before the start of early voting. Logistically, this sweeping, last-minute change will lead to absolute havoc for election officials. And almost by definition, it will slow down the process because now, rather than simply transporting the ballot boxes to a central tabulation location, each box will have to be opened, counted and reconciled before transport. As a result, the board increased the likelihood that final certification of Georgia’s election results could be delayed. The only reasonable conclusion is that the board’s majority intends the mayhem it is creating.
So far, then, the election board’s MAGA-aligned members have avoided any consequences for their conduct.
Leaving aside that there is no evidence that hand-counting ballots at the precinct level has anything to do with election integrity, the new rule is an unauthorized power grab that runs afoul of existing laws and procedures for safeguarding ballots, reconciling totals and tabulating votes. These rules are beyond the SEB’s authority to adopt, as concluded by the highest-ranking attorney in the state. In a memo to the board before the vote, Attorney General Carr was clear: “[T]hese proposed rules are not tethered to any statute—and are, therefore, likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.” Nonetheless, the board adopted the rule over Carr’s objection.
So now that the SEB has ignored Attorney General Carr’s advice and admonition, what is he going to do about it? A roadmap exists: his office spelled it out in the memorandum to the board, which details how the board has exceeded its legal power to implement rules and passed rules that conflict with existing Georgia election laws.
There are serious doubts, however, that Carr will follow through. When leaders of the city of College Park — which is approximately 80% Black and located in the Democratic strongholds of Fulton and Clayton Counties — allegedly violated the State’s Open Meetings Act, Carr’s office acted swiftly in response to the accusations; however, Carr has declined to do the same with the three MAGA-aligned SEB members. On the contrary, the attorney general has gone so far as to offer political cover to Gov. Kemp to allow the governor to avoid conducting a hearing into the board’s alleged unethical conduct.
So far, then, the election board’s MAGA-aligned members have avoided any consequences for their conduct. With his authority directly in question, Carr should exercise the full muscle of his office, fulfill his responsibilities as the state’s chief legal officer, and end the recent rogue and unlawful activity. And if Attorney General Carr fails to act in Georgians’ best interest, voters should remember that failure the next time he asks for their support.