Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration files court action seeking clarity over State Election Board actions

The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration (BOER) has filed a verified petition in Fulton County Superior Court seeking clarity over the State Election Board's (SEB) recently adopted rules, which significantly altered Election Day procedures 46 days prior to the November General Election.                 

At its most recent meeting, BOER voted to take action, echoing the legal objections raised by the Georgia Attorney General and Secretary of State to the six new rules adopted by the SEB in September.  The lawsuit contends that the SEB’s recently adopted rules are likely invalid because they exceed that board’s statutory authority, were not correctly enacted, are unreasonable, and were adopted too close to the November election.

Among the rules passed by the SEB is a new requirement to hand count ballots on election night at each precinct, which the Secretary of State has said “would disrupt existing chain of custody protocols under the law and needlessly introduce the risk of error, lost ballots, or fraud.”  Another rule would alter longstanding policies for poll watcher access in tabulation centers, which could result in overcrowding in already confined spaces, could undermine security, and will restrict election superintendents from determining where observation is most appropriate for their particular tabulation center.  Other rules requiring new processes for reconciling ballots would be burdensome to implement this close to the election, especially with poll worker training already underway.

The BOER filing asks the court to determine whether the rules are valid, noting that election officials from around the state have raised “the immense—and likely insurmountable—burdens these last-minute rule changes would create for election workers.”

No hearing date has been set.