Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

New Georgia election rule takes certification in the wrong direction

Georgia voting stickers
Megan Varner/Getty Images

Johnson is the executive director of the Election Reformers Network, a national nonpartisan organization advancing common-sense reforms to protect elections from polarization.

For a democracy to function, one simple, central fact must be clear to all: who won. There is no disagreement about the winner of the Super Bowl or the Olympic gold medal in the shot put, and the same should be true for election results. But in polarized America, we’ve lost that clarity and public consensus.

Different media environments present radically different pictures of the election landscape. Citizens increasingly trust only the information from their side of the political divide. Who won is starting to sound subjective — a very dangerous trend.


On Tuesday, the State Election Board in Georgia took a big step toward making it worse.

The board voted to grant the state’s county-level election boards new and unclear powers to conduct inquiries into elections before certifying the results. This decision gives a role in evaluating election results to boards composed mostly of political-party-affiliated members, whose work is not likely to be perceived as impartial. The decision also conflicts with longstanding case law that has interpreted county board certification as a ministerial, non-discretionary function. The new powers “would sow disorder in the state’s election administration process, which already has safeguards to ensure election results are accurate and reliable,” the Brennan Center for Justice and United to Protect warned in a letter to the board.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Local certification of results, in Georgia and most other states, used to be a sleepy bit of bureaucracy. A county commission or election board would receive precinct-by-precinct results from the county’s lead election official and certify that the numbers added up correctly. Statutes and case law in many states make clear that this process is not a time for investigation of results or independent judgment.

These county bodies in Georgia and other states do not need discretion at this phase because other election elements amply protect fair results. State laws provide for multiple verification checks of preliminary results, including recounts and audits. Party poll watchers are allowed to observe election processes to check for any irregularities. Parties and candidates can challenge election results in court.

Since 2020, certification has become a battleground in the polarization wars. In six states, board members have sowed doubt and disrupted elections by refusing to certify results, often based on clearly arbitrary and subjective reasoning. “I do not trust these [Dominion voting] machines and I want Otero County to have a fair election for everybody," said one New Mexico county commissioner who initially voted against certifying 2022 primary elections.

In New Mexico and other states, courts stepped in to ensure county boards or commissions complied with the law and certified the results. Those judicial actions kept certification problems from seriously disrupting election timeframes, but, because of the press attention, the standoffs contributed to distrust and uncertainty about results.

Some media coverage of the Georgia decision has mentioned a worst-case scenario of intentional certification delays designed to prevent Georgia’s electoral votes from reaching Washington in time to be counted, but there are strong arguments against the likelihood of this scenario. The county certification deadline in state law — one week after Election day — is quite early in the process, so any delay long enough to put electoral votes in jeopardy would clearly exceed the “reasonable” standard provided in the ruling, giving courts a clear path to intervene and force certification.

The principal argument in favor of Georgia’s new rule is that under the current “ministerial” approach, county board members must attest to results they haven’t personally confirmed. This concern can be addressed by clarifying a set of documents the boards should receive, a suggestion proposed by SEB Chair John Fervier.

It’s helpful to step back and take a comparative perspective on this debate. A recent study of 12 major democracies found that none has a separate certification step in their election process. In fact, none has the word “certification” (or its equivalent) in their election laws at all. What happens instead in those countries is straightforward: The people who run elections announce the results, courts hear any challenges and their decisions are final.

The best way for America to rebuild consensus about who won is not splintering decision-making among hundreds of ill-equipped partisan boards, but instead to follow the model described above: Prioritize the role of courts. As imperfect as they may be, no institution is better suited than courts to consider evidence, render judgment and anchor the rule of law in elections.

In 2020, dozens of courts across six battleground states decided 64 legal actions filed by the Trump campaign. All but one was dismissed, withdrawn or decided against the campaign. (See this report for an excellent summary of all cases.) Collectively, these decisions are the definitive verdict on who won the 2020 election, but they weren’t given the prominence they deserved. Too often commentary in mainstream media cited the opinions of experts on the trustworthiness of the elections, rather than decisions of judges whose rulings were, from the perspective of the rule of law, the last word on the matter.

The Electoral Count Reform Act, critically important legislation passed by a bipartisan majority in Congress, is based on the same core principle that courts have the key role in election disputes, and partisans — such as the vice president and members of Congress – –have minimal discretion. This is the direction we should be taking. Recent legislation passed in Michigan and Minnesota also reflects this approach, clarifying that the certification process is “purely ministerial.”

When the Georgia Legislature reconvenes, it should join this trend and override the SEB ruling.



Read More

Independent Voters Gain Ground As New Mexico Opens Primaries
person in blue denim jeans and white sneakers standing on gray concrete floor
Photo by Phil Scroggs on Unsplash

Independent Voters Gain Ground As New Mexico Opens Primaries

With the stroke of a pen, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham enfranchised almost 350,000 independent voters recently by signing a bill for open primaries. Just a few years ago, bills to open the primaries were languishing in the state legislature, as they have historically across the country. But as more and more voters leave both parties and declare their independence, the political system is buckling. And as independents begin to organize and speak out, it’s going to continue to buckle in their direction.

In 2004, there were 120,000 independent voters in New Mexico. A little over 10 years later, when the first open primary bill was introduced, that number had more than doubled. That bill never even got a hearing. But today the number of independents in New Mexico and across the country is too big to ignore. Independents are the largest group of voters in ten states and the second-largest in most others. That’s putting tremendous pressure on a system that wasn’t designed with them in mind.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hand Placing Ballot in Box With American Flag
Getty Images, monkeybusinessimages

We Can Fix This: Our Politics Really Can Work – These Stories Show How

As American politics polarizes ever further, voters across the political spectrum agree that our current system is not delivering for the American people. Eighty-five percent of Americans feel most elected officials don’t care what people like them think. Eighty-eight percent of them say our political system is broken.

Whether it’s the quality and safety of their kids’ schools, housing affordability and rising homelessness, scarce and pricey healthcare, or any number of other issues that touch Americans’ everyday lives, the lived experience of polarization comes from such problems—and elected officials’ failure to address them.

Keep ReadingShow less