The judge ruled that “Georgia voters would be silenced” if county election board members were “free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge” and refuse to certify election results.
This is a good decision as it prevents some GOP fuckery, but part of me wonders what the point of the certification step is if it MUST be performed affirmatively without any inquiry. Doesn’t it essentially become a rubber stamp at that point? Couldn’t the step just be eliminated entirely?
Election certification is the process through which the canvass — the process of counting and aggregating ballots, and ensuring that every ballot is accounted for — is concluded. The purpose of certification is not to ensure that votes have been accurately counted, identify irregularities or errors, or to resolve issues with an election — there are other processes built in to address these. Election certification doesn’t occur until the results have already been repeatedly verified during the canvassing process.
This is a good decision as it prevents some GOP fuckery, but part of me wonders what the point of the certification step is if it MUST be performed affirmatively without any inquiry. Doesn’t it essentially become a rubber stamp at that point? Couldn’t the step just be eliminated entirely?
From https://protectdemocracy.org/work/election-certification-explained/
Election certification is the process through which the canvass — the process of counting and aggregating ballots, and ensuring that every ballot is accounted for — is concluded. The purpose of certification is not to ensure that votes have been accurately counted, identify irregularities or errors, or to resolve issues with an election — there are other processes built in to address these. Election certification doesn’t occur until the results have already been repeatedly verified during the canvassing process.