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.
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.
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.