A Georgia judge has ruled county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law and cannot exclude any group of votes from certification even if they suspect error or fraud.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” While they have the right to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”
Georgia law says county election superintendents, which are multimember boards in most counties, “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election — or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.
Doesn’t matter: there’s no one to enforce the judge’s ruling and no penalty for refusing, so anyone who does decide not to certify an election faces…sternly worded letter? lawsuit? contempt of court if that goes against them?
As we saw through Trump’s first term, laws only work if there are penalties, and penalties only work if there is someone to enforce them.
Contempt and jail. For low-level officials it happens. See Kim Davis, the clerk that refused to issue a marriage certificate for a gay marriage.
That took 2 months. She served 4 days while deputies were empowered by another court case to do her job and right-wing nutjobs paid her bills. Then she met the Pope.
A Georgia election official who gums up the works for two months to give cover to a Trump victory is getting a big promotion.
Seems to me there has been many sponsored or wealthy who don’t mind getting a slap on the wrist, or suffer jail time after years of court. It seems to be a great way to advance careers and influence.
I’ve yet to see a regular person flouting such rules.
The system may be broken
