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Democrats sued Georgias State Election Board on Monday, asking a judge to block new rules the party claims could cause chaos and allow local officials to potentially delay or even stop the certification of votes in November.

The suit filed by the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic National Committee, with backing from Vice President Kamala Harris presidential campaign comes after the election board voted to shift its rules regarding the certification process. In a 3-2 vote, the body gave local election officials the power to conduct a reasonable inquiry before certifying any results. A separate rule will also allow those officials to examine all election related documentation created during a race.

The rule changes do not define what reasonable inquiry means.

At minimum, these novel requirements introduce substantial uncertainty in the post-election process and invite chaos by establishing new processes at odds with existing statutory duties, the suit says.

If these requirements are interpreted as the drafters assert, the suit goes on, county boards or other superintendents could (unlawfully) delay certifying an election in order to complete a reasonable inquiry, or could even (unlawfully) purport to exercise discretion regarding whether to certify at all.

Georgia is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. We refuse to let ANYBODY take away our voting rights.

We're not going back. pic.twitter.com/hmVdjT8eRi

Lucy McBath (@lucymcbath) August 27, 2024","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Lucy McBath","author_url":"https://twitter.com/lucymcbath","cache_age":86400,"description":"Georgia is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. We refuse to let ANYBODY take away our voting rights. 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Georgia is the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. We refuse to let ANYBODY take away our voting rights.

We're not going back. pic.twitter.com/hmVdjT8eRi
Lucy McBath (@lucymcbath) August 27, 2024

The lawsuit has asked a state judge to invalidate the new rules, saying the election board has exceeded its authority. The parties argued that any claims of fraud or misconduct should be handled by the courts, not local officials.

The chair of the Georgia Democratic Party also pointed to former President Donald Trump s praise for the three members of the election board who voted for the new rules.

The three members Donald Trump called his pit bulls for victory disagree, and theyre determined to establish a new power of not certifying an election result should their preferred candidate lose as he did in 2020, Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), who chairs the state Democratic Party, said in a statement.

The legal filing will open up old wounds in Georgia after Trump attempted to overturn the states election results in 2020 following his loss to Joe Biden by just under 12,000 votes. That effort is the crux of one of the former presidents criminal indictments , notably the moment when he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find the number of ballots needed to see him declared the victor.

Raffensperger, a Republican, criticized the election boards new rules earlier this month, saying the shift risked undermining voter confidence while burdening election workers.

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