Latest news with #electionrules
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Supreme Court of Georgia overturned four rules from the State Election Board
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – The Supreme Court of Georgia overturned four rules from the State Election Board. Those measures were approved just before the presidential elections last year. So, what does this mean for local voting? When the SEB passed seven new election rules, they faced a legal challenge. The Fulton County Superior Court ruled them unlawful. The Supreme Court has now ruled that four of the seven rules are invalid. 'The State Elections Board had passed some rules. There was a lawsuit. So, they adjoined the rules, and they appealed it, and the Supreme Court upheld that decision,' said Travis Doss, Executive Director for the Richmond County Board of Elections. The rules that are now invalid are the reasonable inquiry rule, the hand count rule, the drop box ID rule, and the examination rule. The only rule that was upheld out of the seven is video surveillance of absentee drop boxes outside of voting hours. The other two rules, regarding poll watchers and daily reporting, have been sent back to the trial court. 'Now, there were two rules that the Supreme Court said were fine. One has to do with video surveillance of droboxes, and another one had to do with posting results to the website. We've been posting results to the website already,' said Doss. Richmond County Board of Elections Director Travis Doss says this will not change anything for voters because the rules were never implemented. 'I'm currently president of the association of voter registration and election officials. And we had kind of fought against these rules. Only because they were too close to the election. So, the court did adjoin them so they couldn't be used,' said Doss. Doss says he is happy to finally have closure. 'The good thing about the decision for the Supreme Court. It kind of gives a definitive answer. We were sort of in limbo after the rules were passed in November after there was the lawsuit,' said Doss. The primary for the Public Service Commission is currently underway in Richmond County, with early voting taking place until this Friday and Election Day on Tuesday, June 17th. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Georgia Supreme Court overturns some election rules, curbing State Election Board's power
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's highest court on Tuesday overturned four rules passed by the State Election Board just before last year's general election, ruling the board overstepped its authority and intruded on lawmaking power reserved for legislators under the state constitution. The state Supreme Court's unanimous decision limits the future rulemaking ability of the State Election Board and other executive branch agencies of Georgia's government. The board passed a slate of new rules in August and September that mostly had to do with processes after ballots are cast, spawning a flurry of lawsuits. President Donald Trump narrowly lost the state in 2020 and alleged without evidence that election fraud had cost him victory. Three Trump-endorsed Republicans hold the majority on the five-person State Election Board. The new rules brought an outcry that the board's majority was trying to improperly use its power to help Trump. The board members claimed the changes were needed to improve the accuracy of results. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox ruled in October that seven of the rules were 'illegal, unconstitutional and void,' but the board appealed. Trump beat Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris in November to win Georgia. In its decision, the state Supreme Court invalidated the requirements that ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls, that someone delivering an absentee ballot in person provide a signature and photo ID, that county election board members be allowed to conduct a 'reasonable inquiry' before certifying results and that county election board members be granted broad access to election-related documents. The court let stand a rule requiring video surveillance and recording of ballot drop boxes after polls close during early voting. It told a lower court to decide whether Chatham County Board of Elections member James Hall has the right to challenge two other rules, which expand designated areas where partisan poll watchers can stand at tabulation centers and require daily public updates of the number of votes cast during early voting. As part of its decision, the court overturned a 1990 decision that widened the rulemaking power of state agencies. Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote that the decision was a mistake because it doesn't 'provide clear, objective guidelines that cabin an executive branch agency's exercise of discretion.' The reversal parallels the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning last year of a doctrine that said courts had to defer to how administrative agencies interpreted laws in writing rules. What was called the Chevron doctrine gave federal agencies the authority to make rules for implementing laws passed by Congress that were unclear. Scot Turner, a former state representative and one of the people who challenged the rules, said the court's decision will rein in 'unelected bureaucrats.' 'This ruling makes clear: the legislative power belongs to the General Assembly, not executive branch agencies operating without proper constraints,' Turner said in a statement. The court ruled that the State Election Board had asserted 'the type of unfettered discretion that we have now reiterated is constitutionally intolerable.' That analysis applied to the rule allowing county board members to conduct 'reasonable inquiry' into whether results are valid, which the court said could delay finalizing votes and contradicted state law that says counties 'shall' certify results. The court also ruled that election board members could only examine documents when there were discrepancies in the number of voters or ballots. The court ruled that the rule requiring poll officials to hand-count the total number of ballots — not individual votes — contradicted state law. That's because it allowed the hand-count to take place after Election Day, while state law requires ballots to be tabulated 'as soon as' polls close. A rule requiring people to provide a signature and photo ID when delivering an absentee ballot was invalid, the court ruled, because it 'invents new requirements' not found in law.
