{"id":2355301,"date":"2024-10-15T16:16:01","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T20:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-ga-counties-must-certify-even-non-sensical-election-results\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T16:17:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T20:17:37","slug":"judge-ga-counties-must-certify-even-non-sensical-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-ga-counties-must-certify-even-non-sensical-election-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge: GA Counties Must Certify Even &#8216;Non-Sensical&#8217; Election Results"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjudge-ga-counties-must-certify-even-non-sensical-election-results%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2355301&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A \u2064Georgia judge \u200druled\u200c that \u2064election officials must certify \u200celection results\u2063 even if they\u2063 reveal &#8220;more votes than voters.&#8221; Fulton\u2064 County Superior Court Judge\u2063 Robert McBurney stated\u200c that certification is mandatory \u2064for election superintendents, regardless of discrepancies \u2064in the results. Although superintendents must investigate any anomalies, they are still\u2062 required to finalize\u2062 the \u2064count. \u200cThe \u200cdecision originated from a \u200dlawsuit by Fulton \u2063County\u2063 Board of Registration and Elections member Julie Adams, who initially\u2064 declined\u2064 to certify the\u200c results due to\u2062 a lack of access to necessary election documents. McBurney clarified that while election officials have \u2062a duty to examine potential fraud, concerns about results\u2063 cannot justify delaying \u2063certification. He affirmed that all ballots must be counted, regardless of suspicions of fraud, and emphasized that the certification deadline \u2062must be upheld. \u200dAdams considered the \u2063ruling a victory\u2063 for transparency and\u200b reiterated her commitment to ensuring accurate \u2063election outcomes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A Georgia judge ruled Monday that election officials must certify election results even if the results show &ldquo;more votes than voters.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that &ldquo;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,&rdquo; even if there is a &ldquo;non-sensical result.&rdquo; McBurney did, however, agree that election superintendents have a responsibility to investigate discrepancies and are entitled to review election-related materials as part of this process.<\/p>\n<p>Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (FCBRE) member Julie Adams, who brought the suit, argued (as described by McBurney&rsquo;s ruling) in part that &ldquo;it is proper for her, as a co-election superintendent who has taken an oath to &lsquo;prevent any fraud, deceit, or abuse&rsquo; to exercise discretion in certifying election results &mdash; a conclusion, which, if correct, would empower her to refuse to certify if she believed the results to be incorrect or not sufficiently reliable to merit certification.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Party of Georgia threatened <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/07\/courts-stall-georgia-election-officials-case-months-after-dems-threatened-her-for-refusing-certification\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Adams<\/a> with legal action after she did not certify the results of the March presidential preference primary. Adams initially filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2024-05-22-Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suit<\/a> in May <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/23\/lawsuit-fulton-county-election-board-wrongfully-withholding-records-from-gop-member\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">seeking clarification<\/a> about her role. Adams said she refused to certify the results after she was allegedly denied access to election-related documents and asked that the court clarify her role to be discretionary &mdash; meaning members should only certify the results once they are confident the election was administered lawfully &mdash; rather than ministerial &mdash; meaning members must rubber-stamp results regardless of any concerns.<\/p>\n<p>McBurney <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/11\/judge-dismisses-georgia-election-officials-plea-for-protection-to-do-her-job-after-dem-lawfare-threats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dismissed<\/a> the plea four months later in September after ruling Adams made a procedural error in her filing.<\/p>\n<p><strong>[READNEXT:[READNEXT:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/15\/democrats-lay-groundwork-in-swing-states-to-prosecute-sue-and-threaten-gop-officials-into-certifying-elections-or-else\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dems Lay Groundwork To Prosecute, Sue, And Threaten Swing-State Officials Into Certifying Elections<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Adams then refiled her suit but McBurney ruled Monday that while election superintendents have discretion over &ldquo;[m]uch of what they do,&rdquo; certification is not one of those things. McBurney cited <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-21\/chapter-2\/article-12\/section-21-2-493\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">O.C.G.A. &sect; 21-2-493(a)<\/a> which says election superintendents &ldquo;shall&hellip; publicly commence the computation and canvassing of the returns&rdquo; and then they &ldquo;shall tabulate the figures for the entire county or municipality and sign, announce, and attest the same.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>McBurney acknowledged that election superintendents have a responsibility to investigate potential fraud or discrepancies, affirming that doing so is part of the certification process. Republicans, including those on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/breaking-president-trump-and-gop-senator-thom-tillis-win-north-carolina-decision-desk-hq\/\" title=\"BREAKING: President Trump and GOP Senator Thom Tillis Win North Carolina: Decision Desk HQ\">state election board<\/a>,  have emphasized the importance of ensuring vote counts are accurate before they are certified.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In performing this computation, the superintendent must (&lsquo;shall&rsquo;) compare the returns with the number of electors (voters) in the precinct and the number of votes cast,&rdquo; McBurney ruled. &ldquo;This is not an optional task: the superintendent has a statutory obligation to engage in this cross-checking. And, if there is a non-sensical result &mdash; e.g., more votes than voters &mdash; the superintendent must investigate the discrepancy &hellip; she is not free to ignore it.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>If a superintendent &ldquo;should discover what appears to her to be fraud or systemic error, she still must count all votes &mdash; despite the perceived fraud,&rdquo; McBurney ruled, citing <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-21\/chapter-2\/article-12\/section-21-2-493\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">O.C.G.A. &sect; 21-2- 493(i)<\/a>, which says that &ldquo;[i]f any error or fraud is discovered, the superintendent shall compute and certify the votes justly, regardless of any fraudulent or erroneous returns presented to him or her, and shall report the facts to the appropriate district attorney for action.&rdquo; The Fulton County district attorney is <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/fani-willis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fani Willis<\/a>, who is waging lawfare against Trump in Georgia. <\/p>\n<p>But McBurney said that even when concerns about &ldquo;miscounts&rdquo; or &ldquo;fraud&rdquo; exist, they are &ldquo;not cause to delay or decline certification.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>McBurney did grant Adams&rsquo; request for relief in ruling election superintendents are entitled to promptly review election information during the canvassing process as long as such information is &ldquo;not protected from disclosure by law, regulation, or rule.&rdquo; McBurney, however, added that the certification deadline cannot be ignored because of any delays to the access of the election-related material.<\/p>\n<p>Adams emphasized that gaining access to the material is a win for transparency, pointing out that she chose not to certify the March presidential preference primary in the first place because she was not given access to election-related material. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Judge McBurney has affirmed that I, as a board member, have a statutory duty to &lsquo;cross-check&rsquo; the election returns, procedures, etc. That is where all of this started &mdash; when I was denied access to the full range of the election procedures and materials,&rdquo; Adams said in a statement obtained by The Federalist. &ldquo;Judge McBurney has made it clear that preventing me &mdash; and other board members in Georgia &mdash; cannot be barred from access to the elections in their counties.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Adams says that having access to &ldquo;the entire election process will allow every board member to know and have confidence in the true and accurate results before the time for certification.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Court further stated that there are multiple mechanisms available for board members, candidates, and aggrieved electors to raise and voice concerns about the conduct of the election or questions about the election results after certification,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And the only way to ensure that the results are accurate is for board members such as myself to be fully knowledgeable about all aspects of the election.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Fulton County in particular has certified two questionable election results in recent years. The State Election Board (SEB) <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/09\/board-refuses-to-have-fulton-county-investigated-for-double-scanning-3000-ballots-in-2020-recount\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reprimanded<\/a> the county in May for violating election law in 2020 after it was discovered the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/election-integrity-win-in-georgia-election-board-reprimands-fulton-county-will-appoint-monitor-for-2024\/\" title=\"Georgia Election Board Reprimands Fulton County, Plans to Appoint Monitor for 2024\">county double-scanned<\/a> more than 3,000 ballots during the 2020 recount. Two Republican members of the FCBRE did not vote to certify the results, as explained by The Federalist&rsquo;s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway in her best-seller&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rigged-Media-Democrats-Seized-Elections\/dp\/168451259X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The county also had to re-certify the 2022 primary results after it failed to count 1,326 votes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/politics\/georgia-investigation-finds-fulton-didnt-count-1300-votes-in-22-primary\/URWCNBOM4VHABGH6M62M6X2QQI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>The State Election Board (SEB) passed a series of rules in recent weeks, including <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/16\/georgia-board-to-vote-on-requiring-number-of-ballots-cast-to-equal-number-of-voters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/sos.ga.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-07\/notice_of_proposed_rulemaking_183_1_12_12_1_v2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">permits<\/a> board members to &ldquo;examine all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dems-ga-county-should-rubber-stamp-elections-no-questions\/\" title=\"Dems: GA County Should Rubber-Stamp Elections, No Questions\">election related documentation created<\/a> during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.&rdquo; A separate <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/08\/08\/georgia-elections-board-confirms-officials-right-to-reasonable-inquiry-before-certifying-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rule<\/a> clarifies county election board members can <a href=\"https:\/\/sos.ga.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2024-07\/Notice%20of%20Proposed%20Rulemaking%20-%20183-1-12-.02.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fulfill<\/a> their responsibility to certify an election &ldquo;after reasonable inquiry that the tabulation and canvassing of the election are complete and accurate and that the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>For more election news and updates, visit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/electionbriefing.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">electionbriefing.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Georgia judge ruled that election officials must certify results, even with discrepancies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2355302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/3D_Judges_Gavel-e1729005690804.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43082,43081,5387],"class_list":["post-2355301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-certify","tag-ga-counties","tag-judge"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/3D_Judges_Gavel-e1729005690804.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2355302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}