Molly Butler / Media Matters
Research/Study
Right-wing media cheer as MAGA election board causes chaos in Georgia
GA Republican officials and legal experts highlighted how the potentially unlawful rule change could give Republicans the tools to refuse to certify Harris’ win in the state
Written by Courtney Hagle
Research contributions from Alicia Sadowski
Published
The Trump-allied Georgia State Election Board voted on September 20 to require hand counting all ballots following the November election, among other proposed rule changes. While experts say the rule change “would almost certainly lead to errors and could disrupt the process of certifying the vote in a crucial battleground state,” Donald Trump’s right-wing media allies are celebrating the move as a victory.
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Georgia MAGA Republicans approved controversial rules ahead of the 2024 election
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- The pro-Trump majority on the Georgia State Election Board approved a hand count requirement “despite a string of public commenters who begged them not to.” As reported by The Washington Post, opponents of the rule change include “democracy advocates who accused the board of intentionally injecting chaos and uncertainty into the presidential contest, as well as election supervisors and poll workers who said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors.” The Post also highlighted that federal court precedent recommends “a 90-day ‘quiet period’ ahead of elections during which it is widely considered imprudent to change the rules because of the risk of confusion, error and insufficient training.” [The Washington Post, 9/20/24]
- The new rules feature longstanding right-wing election policy goals. The proposals, which include hand-counting ballots and expanded access for partisan poll watchers, come after poll workers have been trained and overseas ballots have been sent. [The New York Times, 9/20/24]
- The Georgia election board’s latest decision comes amid concerns that the state is changing rules to help Trump’s chances in the state. The New York Times reported in August that the State Election Board approved “a measure that could empower local officials to refuse or delay certification of a county’s election results, creating the potential for another disputed and contentious post-election period in November.” Around the same time, Trump praised the Georgia State Election Board at a rally, saying that “they’re on fire. They’re doing a great job.” [The New York Times, 8/6/24; Rolling Stone, 8/4/24]
- Earlier this week, The Guardian reported on a “network of Georgia election officials strategizing to undermine” the state’s 2024 election results. The outlet detailed how “emails obtained by the Guardian reveal a behind-the-scenes network of county election officials throughout Georgia coordinating on policy and messaging to both call the results of November’s election into question before a single vote is cast, and push rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement.” Additionally, The Guardian recently detailed how election denier Janice Johnson is “laying the groundwork for chaos” in Georgia’s elections in her role sitting on the board. [The Guardian, 9/18/24, 9/20/24]
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State officials and legal experts highlighted that the proposed rule changes are likely unlawful and will cause election chaos
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- Georgia’s Republican attorney general, who advises the board, argued that the rules changes are likely unlawful. In a “rare step,” the attorney general’s office wrote that the proposed rules “very likely exceed the board’s statutory authority.” Republican board Chair John Fervier, who voted against the rule change, also echoed the attorney general’s guidance. “This board is an administrative body, it’s not a legislative body,” he said. “If the legislature had wanted this, they would have put it in statute.” [The New York Times, 9/20/24]
- Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has also raised concerns about the rule changes. Raffensperger, who has previously called the partisan Election Board a “mess,” said that it’s “just too late in the cycle” for the proposed rule changes. Raffensperger previously drew the ire of Trump and his allies in 2020 for certifying the state’s votes for Joe Biden, despite casting a ballot for Trump himself. In a now-infamous phone call after Election Day, Trump pressured Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” he needed to overturn the election result. [CNN, 9/20/24, 11/21/20; The New York Times, 1/3/21]
- Sara Tindall Ghazal, the board’s lone Democratic member who voted against the rule changes, said, “We’re so far off the deep end of sanity here.” Speaking to Mother Jones, Ghazal said, “It’s a terrible, terrible idea to do this sort of thing with no notice, no training.” [Mother Jones, 9/20/24]
- Legal experts and voting rights reporters also emphasized the likelihood of Republicans weaponizing the rule changes to refuse to certify the state if Kamala Harris were to win. Voting rights reporter Ari Berman wrote about how the rule changes could “plunge the vote counting process into chaos and give Republicans yet another pretext not to certify the results if Kamala Harris wins the state.” Berman elaborated that hand-counting ballots is “significantly more burdensome, time-consuming, and error-prone than using standard voting machines.” He added, “Given the short time period for counties to certify the election—the deadline is the Monday after Election Day—voting rights activists worry that the new hand counting mandate, combined with rules adopted last month requiring counties to undertake a ‘reasonable inquiry’ into the vote totals and access ‘all election-related documentation,’ will be weaponized by Republicans to oppose election certification.” [Mother Jones, 9/20/24]
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MAGA media are cheering the approved rule changes as a victory
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- Former Trump spokesperson and election denier Liz Harrington posted that the new hand count requirement is “GREAT NEWS!” adding, “This is a HUGE win and was opposed by the Fake News, the Left, and Raffensperger.” [Twitter/X, 9/20/24]
- The National Pulse described the rule changes as “another win for election integrity efforts in Georgia.” The outlet wrote, “Critics of the decision are disingenuously claiming that requiring a handout has the potential of ‘upending the November election’ and could ‘[delay] reporting of results by weeks if not months.’ However, the electronic count will still occur, and voters will almost certainly know the election results reasonably quickly.” [The National Pulse, 9/20/24]
- Conservative podcaster Bill Mitchell posted that the rule changes are a “VICTORY FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY!” He wrote: “GREAT NEWS! The Georgia State Election Board has approved a 3-2 resolution for hand counting at the precinct level to ensure machine totals match. This is a HUGE win for transparency, despite opposition from the Fake News, the Left, and Raffensperger!” [Twitter/X, 9/20/24]
- Right-wing online influencer Rogan O’Handley, known as “DC Draino,” posted that “Trump could now win Georgia in a blowout!” He wrote, “This is historic. We will finally learn the truth about the machines. And Trump could now win Georgia in a blowout!” [Twitter/X, 9/20/24]
- On Truth Social, election denial group True the Vote claimed that election experts are “fearmongering” over the impact of the approved rules. True the Vote said that “recounting ballots is NOT some massive, complicated, undertaking” because elections should be run like banks, which “audits their portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars in circulation DAILY.” [Truth Social, 9/20/24]
- On social media, GOP Youth Advisory Council co-Chair CJ Pearson called the hand counting decision “an incredible victory for the integrity of our elections.” He continued, “Incredibly proud of my home state today.” [Twitter/X, 9/20/24]
- “Stop the Steal” organizer Kylie Jane Kremer said: “No one cares if the election results are delayed as long as the election results are CLEAR AND ACCURATE!” She also accused Democrats and state Republicans of trying to “steal the November 2024 election, just like in 2020.” [Twitter/X, 9/20/24; 9/20/24]
- Longtime tea party activist Amy Kremer, also a “Stop the Steal” organizer, accused Georgia Republicans of being “opposed to secure elections.” “Why are they opposed to COUNTING ballots before certification?” [Twitter/X, 9/20/24]
- The Federalist characterized the rule as “Seeking To Ensure Accurate Ballot Counts.” The outlet framed other rules passed by the partisan board as “election integrity measures.” [The Federalist, 9/20/24]
- On Fox News, The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway called the decision “one of the basic things you can do to restore election integrity.” She continued, “A lot of states say, ‘Well, maybe we can't do a full audit of the entire election process, but at the very least, we can make sure that the number of voters matches the number of ballots that we receive.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 9/20/24]
- After Fox News host Jesse Watters reported on the “new plan requiring hand counts for every ballot cast on Election Day,” he emphasized, “this didn’t happen last time.” Watters explained, “The ballots were counted by the machine and thrown in boxes and stacked in a warehouse.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/20/24]
- Election denier and Tea Party Patriots founder Jenny Beth Martin applauds MAGA board members actions: “I applaud the efforts of these three courageous board members.” Martin, who reportedly was outside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been cheering the MAGA efforts on Georgia’s election board. [Real America’s Voice, 9/20/24, Media Matters, 9/5/24]