Judge: GA Counties Must Certify Even 'Non-Sensical' Election Results
A Georgia judge ruled Monday that election officials must certify election results even if the results show “more votes than voters.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance,” even if there is a “non-sensical result.” McBurney did, however, agree that election superintendents have a responsibility to investigate discrepancies and are entitled to review election-related materials as part of this process.
Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (FCBRE) member Julie Adams, who brought the suit, argued (as described by McBurney’s ruling) in part that “it is proper for her, as a co-election superintendent who has taken an oath to ‘prevent any fraud, deceit, or abuse’ to exercise discretion in certifying election results — a conclusion, which, if correct, would empower her to refuse to certify if she believed the results to be incorrect or not sufficiently reliable to merit certification.”
The Democratic Party of Georgia threatened Adams with legal action after she did not certify the results of the March presidential preference primary. Adams initially filed a suit in May seeking clarification about her role. Adams said she refused to certify the results after she was allegedly denied access to election-related documents and asked that the court clarify her role to be discretionary — meaning members should only certify the results once they are confident the election was administered lawfully — rather than ministerial — meaning members must rubber-stamp results regardless of any concerns.
McBurney dismissed the plea four months later in September after ruling Adams made a procedural error in her filing.
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Adams then refiled her suit but McBurney ruled Monday that while election superintendents have discretion over “[m]uch of what they do,” certification is not one of those things. McBurney cited O.C.G.A. § 21-2-493(a) which says election superintendents “shall… publicly commence the computation and canvassing of the returns” and then they “shall tabulate the figures for the entire county or municipality and sign, announce, and attest the same.”
McBurney acknowledged that election superintendents have a responsibility to investigate potential fraud or discrepancies, affirming that doing so is part of the certification process. Republicans, including those on the state election board, have emphasized the importance of ensuring vote counts are accurate before they are certified.
“In performing this computation, the superintendent must (‘shall’) compare the returns with the number of electors (voters) in the precinct and the number of votes cast,” McBurney ruled. “This is not an optional task: the superintendent has a statutory obligation to engage in this cross-checking. And, if there is a non-sensical result — e.g., more votes than voters — the superintendent must investigate the discrepancy … she is not free to ignore it.”
If a superintendent “should discover what appears to her to be fraud or systemic error, she still must count all votes — despite the perceived fraud,” McBurney ruled, citing O.C.G.A. § 21-2- 493(i), which says that “[i]f any error or fraud is discovered, the superintendent shall compute and certify the votes justly, regardless of any fraudulent or erroneous returns presented to him or her, and shall report the facts to the appropriate district attorney for action.” The Fulton County district attorney is Fani Willis, who is waging lawfare against Trump in Georgia.
But McBurney said that even when concerns about “miscounts” or “fraud” exist, they are “not cause to delay or decline certification.”
McBurney did grant Adams’ request for relief in ruling election superintendents are entitled to promptly review election information during the canvassing process as long as such information is “not protected from disclosure by law, regulation, or rule.” McBurney, however, added that the certification deadline cannot be ignored because of any delays to the access of the election-related material.
Adams emphasized that gaining access to the material is a win for transparency, pointing out that she chose not to certify the March presidential preference primary in the first place because she was not given access to election-related material.
“Judge McBurney has affirmed that I, as a board member, have a statutory duty to ‘cross-check’ the election returns, procedures, etc. That is where all of this started — when I was denied access to the full range of the election procedures and materials,” Adams said in a statement obtained by The Federalist. “Judge McBurney has made it clear that preventing me — and other board members in Georgia — cannot be barred from access to the elections in their counties.”
Adams says that having access to “the entire election process will allow every board member to know and have confidence in the true and accurate results before the time for certification.”
“The Court further stated that there are multiple mechanisms available for board members, candidates, and aggrieved electors to raise and voice concerns about the conduct of the election or questions about the election results after certification,” she said. “And the only way to ensure that the results are accurate is for board members such as myself to be fully knowledgeable about all aspects of the election.”
Fulton County in particular has certified two questionable election results in recent years. The State Election Board (SEB) reprimanded the county in May for violating election law in 2020 after it was discovered the county double-scanned more than 3,000 ballots during the 2020 recount. Two Republican members of the FCBRE did not vote to certify the results, as explained by The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway in her best-seller Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.
The county also had to re-certify the 2022 primary results after it failed to count 1,326 votes, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The State Election Board (SEB) passed a series of rules in recent weeks, including one that permits board members to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.” A separate rule clarifies county election board members can fulfill their responsibility to certify an election “after reasonable inquiry that the tabulation and canvassing of the election are complete and accurate and that the results are a true and accurate accounting of all votes cast in that election.”
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2