A Crucial Swing State Just Made It Easier To Question Election Results

As Election Day rapidly approaches, the Republican-controlled election board of Georgia, a crucial swing state, just increased the chances of a disputed outcome.

In a narrow vote on Aug. 6, the board’s Republican majority empowered county election officials , most of whom are partisan appointees, to launch inquiries into election results in the days immediately following Election Day.

And on Monday, the board passed another new rule permitting individual county board members to demand access to “all election-related documentation” and mandating that county boards resolve any discrepancies before certifying results.

Georgia’s elections have been a battlefield ever since Donald Trump lost the state by less than 12,000 votes in 2020. On Jan. 2, 2021, the outgoing president pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to “find 11,780 votes,” or one more than he needed to overcome Joe Biden’s margin of victory. Raffensperger refused, and a Fulton County grand jury later indicted Trump and 18 other defendants for crimes related to attempting to overturn the election in a case that is ongoing.

Critics worry that Georgia’s Republican election officials are laying the groundwork to again sow doubt about the results of the presidential election in a critical swing state, and that the new language is a vaguely defined expansion of county boards’ official duties.

Georgia state law says county boards “shall” certify election results. Previously, this involved essentially ministerial actions — consisting of tallying the ballots, sending the results to the state and reporting any issues to law enforcement. Now, with the new rules saying county boards may pursue a “reasonable inquiry” of the results and