Lisa Desjardins:
In recent weeks, Georgia’s election board has adopted changes that could affect this year’s elections.
Among the measures, local authorities could launch an investigation after the results are released, and each local official could demand to review all election materials, including presumably every ballot. If there is a discrepancy between ballots and voter tallies, no votes from a precinct would be counted.
Former President Donald Trump recently praised the three board members who adopted the rules by name, calling them “fighting for honesty and victory.” This week, the national and state Democratic parties filed a lawsuit, citing Georgia’s current law and writing, “Election officials are free to raise concerns at the time of certification, but they cannot use these election irregularities or anything else as grounds to delay certification or deny it altogether.”
To examine this and changes in election law in other states, I’m joined by Votebeat’s Jessica Huseman.
Jessica, let’s start with Georgia, a hotly contested state. Vice President Harris is there this week. What do we know about Georgia’s election certification laws, and can those rules stand?