Judge In Battleground State Strikes Down Multiple New Election Rules, Including Hand-Count Requirement

A Georgia judge struck down several new election rules recently passed by the State Elections Board (SEB).

In an opinion released Wednesday evening, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox ruled the election provisions as “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

This includes the controversial rule change that would allow local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” prior to certifying their county’s election results.

Judge Cox wrote that the rule is “inconsistent with” Georgia statutory law and thus void and unenforceable. pic.twitter.com/o6OfCYSLoI

— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) October 16, 2024

“Additionally, the Georgia Constitution provides that only the General Assembly may provide for a law for a procedure whereby returns of all elections by the people are made to the Secretary of State. The Election Code accomplishes this and the SEB has no authority to legislate otherwise,” Cox wrote.

“Because all of the challenged rules violate these constitutional limitations, they are unenforceable and void,” he added.

From the Associated Press:

The rules that Cox invalidated include three that had gotten a lot of attention — one that requires that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.

Cox found that the rules are “unsupported by Georgia’s Election Code and are in fact contrary to the Election Code.” He also wrote that the State Election Board did not have authority to pass them. He ordered the board to immediately remove the rules and to inform all state and local election officials that the rules are void and not to be followed.

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The Associated Press has reached out to the lawyers for the State Election Board, as well as the three Republican members who had supported the rules, seeking comment on the judge’s ruling. They could appeal but time is running short with less than three weeks to go until Election Day.

The State Election Board, which is controlled by three Republicans endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has passed numerous rules in recent months mostly dealing with the processes that happen after ballots are cast. Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election but claimed without proof that widespread fraud cost him victory in the state.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox struck down seven new election rules on Wednesday, The Superior Court of Fulton County has effectively nullified crucial voting rules established by Georgia’s State Election Board (SEB) with its recent ruling.

We have another one… pic.twitter.com/AEmYeOcMyg

— Colonel Otis (@canfixstoopid) October 17, 2024

The GOP-majority elections board passed the rules last month in a 3-2 vote.

“Cox also blocked new signature and photo ID requirements for people dropping off absentee ballots for others,” Fox News noted.

Georgia Judge Dismantles Election Integrity Rules Weeks Before Election Dayhttps://t.co/oxZRAmfa2H

— The Federalist (@FDRLST) October 17, 2024

Per Fox News:

In the wider ranging of the two cases Wednesday, led by Eternal Vigilance Action, a group founded by former GOP state legislator Scot Turner, the plaintiffs argued the SEB was out of its scope of authority in establishing the new rules.

“Three members of the state election board, kind of like Napoleon, they put a crown on their head and say, ‘We are the emperors of election,’” the plaintiffs’ lawyer said. “No, that is not the way our system of government works.”

But the defendants and supporting groups, including attorneys for the Georgia Republican Party, argued the state’s General Assembly gave the SEB the scope to craft such rules.

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“They don’t say which one of those statutes should be found unconstitutional because, remember, to rule in favor of the plaintiffs here, you’re going to have to find that the General Assembly’s grant of authority to the agency was unconstitutional,” a lawyer for the GOP said.

“They don’t say which one of the three powers we have that they violated. Could be all three of them. Could be one of the three. And if it’s a constitutional challenge, you can’t have something that’s that vague to bring into a court to ask you to declare it to be unconstitutional.”

Judge invalidates new Georgia election rules, including ones on ballot hand count and certificationhttps://t.co/Jg9T6blYeI pic.twitter.com/El4gZEgaJD

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) October 17, 2024

Read the full ruling HERE.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up.

View the original article here.