The Georgia State Election Board is mulling a proposed rule to ensure that the number of votes considered for counting equals the number of votes cast by voters.
That might seem to be a minor administrative matter under normal circumstances. But less than three months away from the Nov. 5 presidential election in one of the nation’s hottest battleground states, the proposal in Georgia has emerged as a major point of contention.
On Monday, Georgia’s five-member election board will vote on a so-called reconciliation rule to set a uniform standard for county election boards to ensure that the number of votes cast and tabulated matches the number of voters who voted. The board is taking public comments through Sunday.
The scheduled vote coincides with the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are scheduled to accept their party’s nominations for president and vice president, respectively. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Harris.
Janice Johnston, a Republican appointee on the Georgia State Election Board, said she plans to vote for the proposed rule and expects it will be approved.
Not having the rule in place, Johnston said, “is like having the math student write their own math exam, grade their own math exam, and not allow the teacher to review the math exam or see the student’s work.”
“Simply put, the board should have access to and review of any election documents that confirm who voted, how many ballots were cast, and how many votes were counted,” Johnston told The Daily Signal in an email. “Georgia has a short certification requirement and this petition complies with the expected deadline (5 p.m. Monday, after the election).”
Several left-leaning organizations have expressed opposition to any proposal that would empower local election boards beyond what such groups claim is a proper “ministerial role” to certify elections.
Meanwhile, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Republican, said Thursday that any new rules added at the “11th hour” could slow down certification of the state’s election results. Raffensperger didn’t specify his opposition to the proposed reconciliation rule, and the State Election Board is considering several different proposals.
“Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Raffensperger said in a public statement.
Raffensperger also referred to Georgia’s election law reform legislation, Senate Bill 202, enacted in 2021 and including, among other things, applying a voter ID requirement to mail-in ballots.
“The [Georgia] General Assembly knew that quick reporting of results and certification is paramount to voter confidence and passed SB 202, but misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards,” Raffensperger said. “Georgia voters reject this 11th-hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board.”
On the national stage, both the Right and the Left have weighed in on Georgia’s proposed rule on vote tabulation.
Cleta Mitchell, founder and chair of the Election Integrity Network, a conservative-leaning group, has encouraged individuals to make public comments to the board in favor of the reconciliation rule.
“It is basic kindergarten math. I don’t know why anyone would oppose it,” Mitchell told The Daily Signal. “Democrats don’t want reconciliation, but most people are surprised it’s not already happening. Georgia law already requires it.”
Reconciling the number of voters with the number of ballots is a requirement of state law, although it is not enforced by every county.
Georgia Code § 2I-2-493(b) states that a county’s superintendent of elections “shall compare the registration figure with the certificates returned by the poll officers showing the number of persons who voted in each precinct or the number of ballots cast.”
The state law adds that if the number of votes “exceeds the total number of persons who voted in such precinct or the total number of ballots cast therein, such excess shall be deemed a discrepancy and palpable error and shall be investigated by the superintendent; and no votes shall be recorded from such precinct until an investigation shall be had.”
The proposed rule says a county’s election superintendent will transmit a reconciliation report to the Office of the Secretary of State about the total of ballots cast in each precinct and the number of voters who received credit for voting in each precinct.
“Any discrepancies in the aggregate total of ballots cast in each precinct compared to the aggregate number of voters who received credit for voting in a precinct shall be fully investigated by the election superintendent or designee,” the proposed rule says. “The explanation for any discrepancy shall be included in the reconciliation report.”
This is not unlike how many businesses operate, Mitchell noted.
“At the end of the day, bank tellers and grocery store clerks have to make sure the numbers match,” the lawyer told The Daily Signal. “All this rule would do is have a consistent standard across the state.”
The America First Policy Institute, founded by veterans of the Trump-Pence administration, also backed the proposed rule, sending a letter in support.
However, the rule gained opposition from the Left.
Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, posted Wednesday on X about what he called “the risk of county officials refusing to certify this fall’s election, with the biggest risk in Georgia.”
A spokesperson for CREW didn’t immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s emailed request for comment.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia expressed opposition in a post on X without explaining why. The organization didn’t respond to an email inquiry from The Daily Signal.
Earlier this month, several organizations on the Left opposed a similar rule approved by the Georgia State Election Board, which authorized local election boards to investigate discrepancies. The groups said this change could allow local boards to block certification of elections.
CREW teamed in June with the Public Rights Project and the Georgia chapters of the ACLU and Common Cause to send a letter to state board members opposing a separate but similar change in rules. In that case, the change allowed a “reasonable inquiry” by a county election board to be completed before the first Monday after an election.
Early voting in Georgia will begin Oct. 15.
The Peach State has 16 electoral votes. In the 2020 presidential race, Biden narrowly won the state over incumbent Donald Trump, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to get a victory there since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Local boards are supposed to play an active and important role in ensuring a transparent election, said Hans von Spakovsky, who for five years was a member of the Fulton County, Georgia, Board of Registration and Elections.
Von Spakovsky is currently manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation, where he is a senior legal fellow.
“Under Georgia law, those county boards act as the superintendents of their county elections with a fiduciary duty to administer their elections in compliance with all applicable state and federal laws and to correct any errors, mistakes, or discrepancies that may occur,” von Spakovsky wrote in an Aug. 14 letter to the Georgia State Election Board.
Groups on the left contend that the local election boards are supposed to be less involved, pointing to a 1947 Georgia Supreme Court ruling in the case of Thompson v. Talmadge. That decision said those boards have “no discretionary power except to determine if the returns are in proper form and executed by the proper officials and to pronounce the mathematical result, unless additional authority is expressed.”
“The GA State Election Board’s election rule changes allow pro-Trump election officials in Georgia’s 159 counties to arbitrarily refuse to certify election results,” Max Flugrath, communications director for the Georgia-based liberal group Fair Fight Action, posted on X. “This conflicts with Georgia law. Experts and judges say certification is ministerial, rather than discretionary.”
However, GOP state board member Johnston noted that existing Georgia law explicitly says local election boards shall “inspect systematically and thoroughly” the conduct of elections.
“Georgia law clearly states that boards are instructed to exercise the powers and perform the duties granted by the legislature to ensure that elections are conducted honestly, efficiently, and uniformly,” Johnston told The Daily Signal, adding: “In recent years, there seems to have been a perceived loss of authority of some county boards, to the extent that some boards were expected to ‘certify’ elections with no participation in the canvass or review of election documents.”
