WE ARE NOT GOING BACK!
We are almost 60 days away from the 2024 election, and Trump acolytes in Georgia are doing what they can to make things difficult for voters. Last week, the DNC sued Georgia’s Election Board over rules they enacted 100 days before the election. They call them “rules to prevent chaos,” which allows election officials to “conduct a reasonable inquiry” into the accuracy of results prior to certification and allowing individual members of county election board to “look at election related documentation during the conduct of elections.” Sounds like they are creating the chaos instead of preventing it. Ultimately, they have empowered themselves to hold up certification of the final vote. This has been going on for some time, as the three Republican members of the Board have tried to secretly meet without the Democrats to pass these rules. Why so sneaky if you have the majority? Because they know what they’ve done is wrong. No surprise that the three are MAGA Republicans.
The funny thing about the new rules is that they were voted down before. A former Republican board member called the rules “illegal,” and he was pressured to resign, being replaced by Janelle King, a panelist from a local conservative show called “The Georgia Gang.” King wholeheartedly supported the rules. Once she joined the other two election deniers, their goal was met. The problem, according to ProPublica, is that the rules are still illegal. Also involved in passing these rules were Hans von Spakovsky, a Heritage Foundation lawyer; Ken Cuccinelli, former Secretary of Homeland Security under Trump; and Cleta Mitchell, head of the Election Integrity Network. Republicans will stop at nothing to ensure that Kamala Harris does not win the election, but fortunately, not all Republicans are involved in this nonsense.
According to the Independent, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has asked Attorney General Christopher Carr for “guidance” on removing the three Board members who passed the rules. Trump has, of course, been praising the “bravery” of the three right-wingers on Georgia’s Election Board. The rules are so vague that they don’t even make sense. It purports to allow county boards to “make a reasonable inquiry” before the election can be certified. Unfortunately, no one knows what “reasonable inquiry” even means. Consequently, they can do whatever they want to keep the election from being certified. Brian Kemp is no fan of Donald Trump, and he likely knows that the only reason for these rules is to ensure that Trump can cry “foul” when he loses. Kemp has been through this before with Trump, and he doesn’t plan to do it again. Brian Kemp is trying to head this mess off before it can even become a problem.
Democrats rightfully sued over this illegal rules. Georgia Representative Lucy McBath commented: “With passing this new rule, they are creating barriers to counting votes and certifying the elections so Donald Trump can once again attempt to throw our country into chaos.” Kamala Harris’s campaign has endorsed the lawsuit. As Harris has repeatedly said-and Lucy McBath echoed-we are not going back.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years