“Complicating Kemp’s involvement in the controversy is the fact that Trump has been cheering on the state board’s work, naming each of the three conservatives at his Aug. 3 rally in Atlanta and calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
“Kemp plans to attend a fundraiser in Atlanta for the Republican presidential nominee, who is locked in a virtual tie with Vice President Kamala Harris in polling of the critical swing state.
But the détente might not last. Kemp is now weighing whether state law requires him to get involved in a simmering controversy around the Georgia State Election Board, whose conservative majority is under fire for approving new rules this month that Trump supports but that state and local officials say will sow confusion, compromise ballot security and potentially enable rogue county boards to block certification of election results in November.
This week, Kemp asked Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) for an advisory opinion on what authority he has to address ethics complaints against the state board. Those who filed the complaints have said that state law requires the governor to remove the members if he finds their actions were inappropriate.
The board’s pro-Trump majority has attracted attention in recent weeks for taking up new rules, including one that allows county election boards to make “reasonable inquiries” before certifying an election if they have questions about the outcome. The rule does not specify what a reasonable inquiry is, and it places no limits on the time frame of such a probe or what documents a board can
demand before certifying results. Election experts say delays could open the door to efforts to subvert the outcome along the lines of what Trump and his allies attempted in 2020.
Even more concerning to state and local election officials is a rule the board plans to take up on Sept. 20 that would require all counties to conduct hand counts of ballots at the precinct level on election night. If approved, these officials say, the measure could lead to less accurate results and compromise ballot security by requiring more people to handle them.
“We have had so much security training. We have done so many tabletop exercises. We have been told that the number one priority is security,” said Christina Redden, the assistant election director in Glynn County, who along with hundreds of other election officials was gathered this week at an election-security training in Forsyth, about an hour south of Atlanta. “Ballots are going to be vulnerable while being handled by multiple people at the precinct level.”
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who also attended the training, called the state board “a mess.” “Legal precedent is pretty clear. You shouldn’t change rules in the middle of an election,” he added, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling….
Kemp had not been invited to the rally, and his team was taken aback by the criticism. The governor was particularly upset by Trump’s criticism of his wife, Marty, a person with knowledge of Kemp’s thinking said. In April, Marty Kemp had told a local TV station that if the election were held then, she would write in her husband’s name for president.
Kemp responded to Trump on X, telling the former president to “leave my family out of it” and calling on him to stop “engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past.” In addition, some of Kemp’s allies in the state backed out of plans to praise Trump publicly after the event, and Trump campaign aides began receiving a flood of concerned calls.”
MORE AT:
The Washington Post
Decision on Georgia election board threatens Kemp’s détente with Trump
The governor must decide whether to seek the removal of board members who have been praised by the former president for changing election rules with months to go before the vote.
August 29, 2024 at 2:10 p.m. EDT
On the Washington Post page next to the article above was this:
Harris says she will put a Republican in her Cabinet if elected
Updated August 29, 2024 at 10:52 p.m. EDT
Published August 29, 2024 at 5:27 p.m. EDT
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