A Controversial Proposal
Voting rights activists have long expected the State Election Board to vote in favor of the proposal, which requires election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election operations before certifying the results.
Dr. Janice Johnston, who was appointed to the board by the Republican Party, supported the rule change.
“It’s the duty of the boards to provide oversight in a fair way, in a reasonable way. Reasonable inquiry actually lifts a burden from a vendor to have to do too much inquiry. We’re just asking for a reasonable inquiry. Any board that would not certify should be able to provide very specific reasons why they should not certify.”
Fair Fight, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, said in a statement that the board’s decision may be “used to delay and obstruct the certification of Georgia’s 2024 election.”
Board member Sarah Ghazal, appointed by the Democratic Party and opposed to the measure, feared that reasonable inquiry would be used for voter suppression.
“I think the definition, the way it’s stated, allows for exploitation.”
Georgians to see more poll watchers
The State Election Board also considered several other rule changes. The board voted 3 to 1 to allow poll watchers to observe more parts of the voting process, including the verification of absentee ballots. Ghazal, the only member to vote against the rule change, stated that it would allow members of the public—poll watchers—to view private information that typically only certified officials are allowed to view.
“Once absentee ballots have been processed and verified, that is conducted not in the public because that necessarily will use private information on voters.”
Board member Janelle King clarified that poll watchers are in fact certified and that they usually observe activities from a distance.
While many hailed the decisions, several members of the public who spoke at the meeting feared that the change to poll watching rules, would slow down ballot counting efforts and possibly prevent results from being certified within mandated time frames.
Effort to regulate voter eligibility challenges stalls
Another rule change stalled out during the meeting. Orion Danjuma, a representative of the nonprofit United to Protect Democracy, presented a rule change that would require those filing voter eligibility challenges to shoulder the burden of proof rather than county election boards.
While Danjuma argued that the rule update would promote the rule of law, board member Janelle King said it would impose an undue burden on citizens.
“It sounds like it’s making it difficult for people to challenge if they think they want to challenge the voter roll,” said King.
Danjuma responded that the rule would provide helpful guidelines for challengers.
Chairman John Fervier suggested that the rule change be tabled and revised, to which Danjuma agreed.
