Attempts to manipulate election rules damage our democracy, whether they succeed or not

As the Georgia State Election Board faces backlash and legal challenges for multiple major rule changes just weeks before Election Day, some legal commentators have cast doubtupon whether those changes could actually imperil vote counting and certification of the election. Even if they do not succeed, these last-minute and entirely unnecessary rule changes are confusing and potentially intimidating, especially for voters of color who have experienced a long and sordid history of discrimination in Georgia. They waste valuable resources and sow doubtabout the election. Whether or not they are successful, they dilute the most basic principles of American democracy.

To be clear, top officialsin Georgia, including the Secretary of State, have signaled a willingness to take action to ensure that vote counting and certification proceeds smoothly. Litigation is also quashing their impact. Voters in Georgia and across the country should feel confident that their votes will be counted fairly. We all deserve a free and fair election, and every citizen deserves to have their fundamental right to vote protected. And even if county-level certification proceeds on time for every state to meet the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act's December 11th deadlinefor governors to submit their certification to Congress, these rule changes are still a threat to American democracy.

Just as turnout should not be the measure of whether voter suppression exists, so too should the election ultimately being certified on time with the rightful winner not be the metric of whether these rules are harmful. Voter suppression laws are not always followed by decreases in turnout-and may even "backfire"-because Black and brown voters may organize hard enough to overcome the discriminatory barriers imposed by voter ID laws, polling place closures and more. But those voters were still harmedby inequitable voting laws because of the need to work harder to overcome the discriminatory laws. Under voting rights law, having a negative effect on turnout or votes being counted equally is not the measure of democracy. Delayed vote counts, county officials delaying or refusing to certify and other disruptions in the process are likely to undermine voter confidence by raising questions of whether their votes were fairly counted and sowing distrust and misinformation, including reinforcing a belief that some votes and voters can't be trusted.

County officials have a mandatory, non-discretionary, entirely ministerial duty to certify the results of the election, and the rules passed by the partisan SEB majority fly in the face of this well-established body of law. Georgia has strong legal tools in place to allow state officials to compel certification if needed, so it is unlikely that local election board members refusing to certify will actually result in certification being denied. However, providing cover for election board members to baselessly deny certification is alarming, legitimizing efforts to disenfranchise voters based on unfounded accusations of fraud.

At least one of the rules adopted by the board in August was originally submittedby a former county election official at the behest of a regional leader of the Election Integrity Network, a group whose questionable efforts led to unduly challenging certification of the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states. The same people who called the 2020 results into question are adding even more tools to their toolboxes-including potential delays in vote counting that they may again use to try to undermine democracy by perpetuating disinformation about the election results.

Attempting to manipulate the results of elections and take the right to vote away is anti-democratic-whether or not it works. It's unlikely to work in Georgia, in that the state's electoral votes are likely to be awarded to the top vote getter. But the State Election Board's rules harm American democracy in other ways: they join a larger effort to make it easier to question legitimate election results, delay vote counting and enable manipulation. They are nothing less than an attack on democracy and the integrity of our elections. Until Congress takes action by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Actand theFreedom to Vote Act, these new threats to American democracy will only become more common.

Photo of polling sign by U.S. Department of State (IIP Bureau) under Creative Commons License