Georgia judge rules that county election boards must certify results

Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A Georgia state judge shot down a Republican-led effort to broaden the power of county election officials on Tuesday, ruling they had an obligation to certify election results without delay and had no role in declining them.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his ruling that state election boards don't have the power to reject such counts. Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, brought the case, in hopes that McBurney would rule that certifying election results were "discretionary."

"Election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results," McBurney said in his ruling. "Consequently, no election superintendent (or members of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstances."

McBurney said in Tuesday's ruling that cases of alleged fraud or systemic error are issues that should be addressed by appropriate local authorities and should not be used to whether to or not certify election results.

"If election superintendents were, as plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury and judge, and so -- because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud -- refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced," he said, according to The Hill. "Our constitution and election code do not allow that to happen."

Georgia is one of a handful of must-win battleground states for Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in November's presidential election. Trump won the state in 2016 but lost in by less than 12,000 in 2020.

The ruling comes as Georgia began early voting for the 2024 under new rules passed by the state election board that would grant county election boards the ability to delay certifying election results to investigate potential discrepancies.

A separate case brought by Democrats both in Georgia and nationally is still awaiting a decision.