CNN
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Georgia has a judge Removed controversial new election rules Passed by Donald Trump allies, two Democrats say it will inject post-election “chaos” into the crucial battleground state.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox said the two violated state law, which requires county election officials to conduct a “reasonable hearing” before certifying election results and “permit inspection of all documents relating to election. Elections before results are certified.”
“The court here declares these provisions illegal, unconstitutional and void,” Cox wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.
Georgia’s 16 electoral votes are crucial for both Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the state by just 10,000 votes.
Early voting began on Tuesday with a record turnout in the Beech State.
Three GOP members of the Georgia State Board of Elections drew attention at a rally in Atlanta this summer.
“They’re on fire. They’re doing a great job,” Trump said during his speech in Atlanta on Aug. 3. “The three members … are all pitbulls fighting for transparency, honesty and success.”
After they were passed in August, both rules were quickly challenged by Democrats and others who feared they would give state officials broad powers to delay or outright reject results in order to detect election fraud or irregularities. .
But Cox said in his ruling that the “fair hearing” clause “adds an additional and ill-defined step to the certification process” and the “examination” clause “creates a legally unlimited scope under which (election) monitors may consider unauthorized materials when tabulating, canvassing and certifying election results.”
The GOP-controlled State Board of Elections has said the rules don’t give district officials discretion, but a “fair trial” claim by voting rights advocates, Democrats and others has challenged the rules involving a partisan election district official. They use their discretion to reject election results.
The judgment came on Wednesday in a case filed by the election advocacy group Eternal Vigilance Action.
One of the other provisions Cox struck down required officials to hand-count the number of votes cast at each polling place, a requirement Georgia law did not support. In a separate challenge brought against Cobb County, a different judge in the state on Tuesday suspended the ballot counting rule.
Cox wrote on Wednesday, “This provision greatly expands the authority and duties of election officials to provide supervisors with advance issuance and pre-certification.
This story has been updated with additional details.
