A Georgia judge ruled on Tuesday that county election boards must certify election results, a landmark victory for democratic standards and a major setback for election deniers attempting to undermine the 2024 election. “No election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance,” Fulton County Judge Judge Robert McBurney wrote in response to a lawsuit filed by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Elections who voted against certifying the May presidential primary. Adams works for an election denial organization created by right activist Cleta Mitchell, a Trump lawyer who helped drive the effort to invalidate the 2020 results and filed her case with the support of the Trump-allied America First Policy Institute.

McBurney’s opinion is especially significant because the MAGA majority on the Georgia State Election Board has passed a slew of contentious eleventh-hour rule changes that Democrats, voting rights groups, and even some Republicans fear will be used as an excuse not to certify the election results if Vice President Kamala Harris wins Georgia. This includes demanding a hand-count of election day ballots, asking counties to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, and providing county officials with “all election-related documentation.” Any move to refuse to certify the results, even if unsuccessful, might be used by Trump and his allies to instill cynicism in the voting process. (The rule modifications are also being contested in court.) In his view, which arrived in-person early requiring counties to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, and granting county authorities access to “all election-related documentation.” Any move to refuse to certify the results, even if unsuccessful, might be used by Trump and his allies to instill cynicism in the voting process. (The rule modifications are also being contested in court.) In his opinion, which came as in-person early voting began in Georgia, McBurney addressed the repercussions of Georgia election officials defying the law. “If election superintendents were, as Plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so—because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud—refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” according to him. “Our Constitution and the Election Code do not allow for that to happen.”

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