Georgia voter rules will cause ‘a fair amount of chaos’, says state election board Democrat

We were joined by Sara Tindall Ghazal from Atlanta, who’s the lone Democrat on the Georgia state election board.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Just to recap, what’s happened is that the Republican majority have changed the rules so that they can ask what they call reasonable inquiries of the election results before it gets certified. So what is your fear? What are you worried about? Because that sounds sort of reasonable.

Sara Tindall Ghazal: Well, of course, reasonable inquiry does sound very rational. The problem lies with not just that, but a second rule that allows an uninhibited request for documents, but it also authorises a level of inquiry that the statute does not allow. Certification is a really simple process – it’s addition. It’s all about maths. It’s about making sure that the number of voters does not exceed the number of ballots cast and that the number of votes does not exceed either of those. So that’s all the certification process is. It’s looking at the numbers, making sure they add up and making sure that every vote has been counted. But the rule that accompanies this reasonable inquiry rule actually authorises superintendents to do a voter-by-voter analysis that the statute just doesn’t authorise. It authorises an endless request for documents that may or may not be related to certification. And it really signals to superintendents that certification is a discretionary task, which it isn’t under law.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: What this sounds like is that we are going to get more chaos in those hours after the American people vote if this happens. Do you believe that the Republicans on your state board are doing this because they’re trying to get Donald Trump into power?

Sara Tindall Ghazal: I’m not going to speculate about their motivations. But what I do know is they have outright stated – some of the Republicans on the board have stated – that they think that superintendents should be able to throw out entire scanners worth of ballots, so 5000 ballots at a go. So I’m going to take them at their word and believe that that’s what they want to do.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Right – and the implication of that would be what? That the election result is not safe? Or that there would be delay? I mean, how do you see this playing out?

Sara Tindall Ghazal: I actually have enormous faith in the county election administrators. I have enormous faith in our courts. I believe that the elections will be certified on time. But I also believe that there will be a narrative and there will be disinformation about the process itself, and there will be a fair amount of chaos, at least within the public, within the media. But I think if it has to go to the courts, I think the courts will sort it out.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: So the danger is, were Donald Trump to lose, the narrative will develop over things like this, that this election was also stolen. That’s your fear?

Sara Tindall Ghazal: That is exactly my fear. I mean, four years on, and we still have election officers, election administrators, getting death threats. You should see my inbox. We still have people who believe that the election four years ago was stolen, even though it has been investigated over and over and over again. And that is not healthy for our political bodies. It’s not healthy for the ‘body politic’. It’s what leads to this societal strife.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy: Right. And this is just one state. I mean, it’s going to be a very fascinating period in those hours after people vote.