Georgia Supreme Court halts reinstatement of new election rules while weighing appeal

Georgia’s top court on Tuesday declined to let several controversial election rules go into effect while it weighs an appeal by national Republicans. The rules were passed in recent months by the State Election Board, then struck down by a lower court.

The Georgia Supreme Court decided unanimously that the rules will remain on hold as the court considers whether the State Election Board — an unelected panel of three Republicans, one Democrat and a nonpartisan chair — overstepped its authority.

The court also declined to hear the appeal on an expedited basis, effectively ensuring that no eleventh-hour rule changes will take effect before Election Day, an outcome feared by election officials who warned a last-minute implementation would cause chaos at the polls.

Last week, Fulton County Superior Judge Thomas Cox ruled that seven of the state board’s new rules were “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

The rejected rules, challenged by the nonprofit Eternal Vigilance Action, founded by former Georgia state Rep. Scot Turner (R), included requirements that ballots be hand-counted on election night, that election workers undertake a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying and that election officials be given access to “all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections.”

“This is a victory for the Constitution and the principle of separation of powers,” Turner wrote in a post on the social platform X following Cox’s ruling. “Every conservative should see this as a win and significant pushback on an unelected board making law.”

But the Republican National Committee (RNC) rapidly appealed the decision, bypassing the state’s intermediate court and asking the Georgia Supreme Court to weigh in. RNC Chair Michael Whatley called Cox’s ruling “the very worst of judicial activism” in a statement announcing the appeal.

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The state’s highest court agreed last week to hear the appeal, but Tuesday’s ruling maintains the status quo while that process moves forward.

Georgia’s State Election Board has faced several legal challenges over its new rules. Detractors claim the changes could slow down the certification process in favor of GOP candidates, while proponents say the new rules serve to better safeguard November’s contests in the first big election since 2020, when unfounded claims of widespread fraud ran rampant.

The stakes are high, as Georgia remains one of seven states that could sway the outcome of the presidential election between former President Trump and Vice President Harris. Fundamental changes to how the state’s elections are run stand to undermine confidence in the state’s results.