Donald Trump's loyalists have infiltrated a Georgia election board and are now wreaking havoc, a legal analyst said on Friday.
MSNBC's Lisa Rubin, a former litigator, highlighted the actions of three pro-MAGA members of the local board, and how some of them may be illegal.
"Georgia's State Election Board, a five-member body controlled by fervent Donald Trump loyalists, adopted a rule allowing local election boards to conduct a 'reasonable inquiry' before certifying election results — a task that, pursuant to Georgia statutory law, has long been understood to be mandatory and ministerial," Rubin wrote, adding that the state election board "failed to define what constitutes a 'reasonable inquiry' and suggested — again, in contrast to plain language in Georgia law requiring counties to certify this year's election results by Nov. 12 — that such inquiries could justify failing to certify by that date (or any specific date)."
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But, she said, "it gets worse."
"As good government types and local Democrats sputtered, the Georgia election board wasn't quite done. Instead, it met again Wednesday because its very newsy vote Tuesday night meant other agenda items went unaddressed. In May, the board voted to resolve that complaint by reprimanding Fulton County for such errors and appointing independent election monitors for the upcoming general election," Rubin wrote Friday. "Yet on Wednesday, despite strenuous objections from the board's chair, John Fervier (an appointee of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican and a Trump foe), and the board's lone Democrat, Sara Tindall Ghazal, the three remaining members reopened that complaint and approved referring it to Georgia's attorney general, Chris Carr."
Rubin further suggested that "one of the members he has praised, Janelle King, reacted to Fervier's repeat warnings that the board's actions might run counter to state law."
"For example, according to public reporting, the Georgia attorney general's office — which has now been charged with conducting a new investigation — had advised Fervier that reopening the complaint would itself be unlawful," she added Friday. "A source close to the board confirms that Carr's office provided such guidance through a written memo in June."
