Georgia Supreme Court finds MAGA-aligned election board exceeded its authority last year

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday that the state's election board exceeded its authority when it imposed new voting rules in the months leading up to the 2024 election.

The eight-justice court rejected four of seven rules adopted by the Republican-led election board that were challenged by the plaintiffs, two Georgia voters and an election policy nonprofit. The ruling, which upholds in part a lower court decision against the board, curtails the board's ability to impose rules without supporting laws passed by the state's General Assembly.

Georgia law permits the state election board to "pass rules to implement and enforce" the state's election code, Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote in his 96-page opinion for the court, "but it cannot go beyond, change, or contradict the statutory scheme."

The state Supreme Court declared four rules invalid, including one that required hand counts of ballots and one that required "reasonable" inquiries of elections before certifying results. However, the eight justices — seven of whom were appointed by Republican governors — deemed a rule requiring video surveillance of ballot drop boxes to be legal.

The court did not weigh in on the merits of the two final rules challenged by the plaintiffs — one related to the daily reporting of votes and one that expanded vote tabulation access to poll watchers — and sent them back to a lower court for reconsideration.

The five members of the state election board are chosen by the state's governor, the two major political parties and the two chambers of the state legislature. It currently consists of a Republican chair, three Donald Trump loyalists praised by the former president as “pit bulls,” and a lone Democrat.

The board made headlines during the 2024 election cycle for quickly pushing through rules that critics said would delay certification of election results and amounted to a "power grab."

The Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other legal groups, intervened in the case last year.

“This rule would have opened the door to confusion, delays, and potential voter disenfranchisement,” Gerald A. Griggs, president of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, said in a statement on Tuesday, adding: “The Court’s ruling is a clear message that voter suppression has no place in our elections.”

Read the Georgia Supreme Court's opinion below: