'This is very bad': Experts shocked by '5 alarm fire' that could deliver Georgia to Trump
Donald Trump's MAGA allies just set democracy ablaze in Georgia, legal experts warned on Friday.
A new election regulation allowing “reasonable inquiry” into vote tallies has raised serious concerns that state Republicans plan to deliver Georgia to Trump whether or not the Republican presidential nominee wins it this November, Mother Jones reported Friday.
"5 alarm fire for democracy in Georgia," voting rights correspondent Ari Berman wrote on X. "MAGA majority on state election board laying groundwork not to certify election if Trump loses again.
"They’re telegraphing exactly how they're planning to try to steal the election this time."
Three Republicans on Aug. 6 — which Berman notes was the 59th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act — passed a rule allowing voting inquiries before certifying election results, he reports.
The reasonable inquiry rule is scheduled to go into effect two months before voters take to the polls to cast ballots for Trump or presumed Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Legal experts will likely challenge the rule on the grounds it illegally allows election officials to challenge voting results they do not like, Berman reports.
"But if the measure—which does not define what a 'reasonable inquiry' is —stands," Berman adds, "Democrats and voting rights groups are warning that Republican election deniers will use it as a pretext not to certify an election if a Democrat wins—the very thing Trump unsuccessfully tried to get election officials to do in 2020."
Georgia House Democrats have also argued the new rule was passed to provide Trump a boost in the crucial swing state he lost in 2020 — and where he currently faces criminal charges linked to his efforts to claim it anyway.
“These are MAGA certification rules, and they’re in direct conflict with Georgia law, which states in multiple places that local elections board officials shall perform their duties, meaning their duties are mandatory, not discretionary,” State Rep. Sam Park said at a Tuesday press conference.
Georgia constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis urged a representative of the judicial branch in Fulton County — where Trump stands accused of election racketeering — to step in and avoid election problems.
"It is entirely appropriate for a Fulton County Superior Court judge to issue declaratory relief to prevent problems in November with delays, chaos ensuing, people find themselves facing criminal liability, and folks scrambling to petition for writs of mandamus," Kreis said.
"This is very bad."