Electoral certification disputes in some states raise concerns about 2024 presidential race

In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, two Republican members of a county campaign board last month refused to sign off on the results of an election that led to the removal of three Republican members of the county commission. They did so only after state authorities advised them that it was their legal duty to record the final vote count.

In Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes the Democratic-voting city of Atlanta, a group led by members of former President Donald Trump’s administration last week sued a Republican member of the local elections board. could refuse to certify the results of the primary elections.

And in Arizona, GOP lawmakers sued to reverse the state’s top Democratic officials’ demand that local councils automatically validate election results.

The past four years have been filled with battles over all manner of election arcana, including one that had long been considered an administrative afterthought — little-known state and local boards. certifying the results. With the presidential election looming in November, lawyers are bracing for even more fights electoral certification, especially in swing states where victory margins are expected to be narrow. Even if these efforts fail, election officials fear they will become a vehicle to promote false election claims.

Trump and his allies tried use the tactic to prevent the election results from becoming definitive if they lose. In 2020, two Republicans on Michigan’s state canvassing board, which must certify vote totals before state officials can declare a winner, will soon hesitated to sign before someone gave in and became the deciding vote. Trump applauded the delay as part of his effort to overthrow your lost which finally culminated in January 6, 2021, attack at the US Capitol.

During the 2022 midterm elections, some conservative rural counties attempted to withhold state election results, citing the same debunked allegations of electoral fraud that Trump did.

In New Mexico, rural county supervisors refused to certify the state’s primary vote until they were threatened with prosecution. In Cochise County in southeastern Arizona, two Republican supervisors who refused to certify local vote totals said they had no doubt that their own county’s count was accurate, but protested counts in other counties that gave victories to Democratic candidates for governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

Responding to the certification controversies, Michigan’s Democratic legislature passed a law making clear that state and local canvassing boards must certify election totals. The two Arizona county supervisors currently face criminal charges presented by the state’s Democratic attorney general.

Democrats and nonpartisan groups say the thousands of local election oversight boards across the country are not the place to contest vote counts and that state laws make clear they have no leeway to approve their officials’ final tallies.

“Election officials do not have the power to reject the results of an election because of their vibrations,” said Jonathan Diaz of the Campaign Legal Center, adding that lawsuits and recounts are the appropriate recourse. “They are there to perform a function. They are there to certify.”

But some Republicans argue that’s going too far. Kory Langhofer, the attorney suing to overturn the Arizona election procedures manual directive issued by the Democratic attorney general and secretary of state, said he did not support the effort to block certification in Cochise County in 2022. But, he argued he, locally elected oversight boards must have some discretion to police elections.

“It seems to me that the system is stronger when you have multiple eyes on it,” Langhofer said. Regarding efforts to block certification in 2020 and 2022, he added: “I hope this is behind us.”

Democrats doubt that is the case. They note that the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump organization run by former officials of his administration, filed the lawsuit in Georgia to allow Julie Adams, a member of the Fulton County Board of Elections, to vote against the election certification . Adams’ other four board members voted to certify last month’s primary, but Adams abstained last week, saying she could not accept the results due to past election administration issues in the county.

“This action will reestablish the role of board members as those primarily responsible for ensuring that elections in Fulton County are free from fraud, deception and abuse,” the institute wrote in its statement announcing the lawsuit. The group did not respond to a request for comment.

Fulton County is the heart of the Democratic vote in Georgia, and anything that keeps his November totals up could help make it look like Trump has a big lead in the state.

“Trump and the MAGA Republicans have made it clear that they are planning to try to block the certification of the November election when they are defeated again, and this is a transparent attempt to set the stage for that fight,” Georgia Democratic Party Chair and Rep. Nikema Williams said in a statement.

In Delta County, Michigan, Clerk Nancy Przewrocki, a Republican, said the two Republican canvassers requested a manual recount of the votes, which is beyond the scope of their position. Canvassers ultimately voted to certify the May election after receiving a letter from State Election Director Jonathan Brater reminding them of their duties and warning them of the consequences of non-certification.

Still, Przewrocki said she is worried about what might happen in November if a similar situation arises.

“I can see this increasing, unfortunately. I’m trying to keep our voters confident in our voting equipment, and it’s completely undermining it when there’s really nothing there,” Przewrocki said.

After the Delta County incident, the Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and attorney general Dana Nessel, both Democrats, issued a reminder to local campaign boards across the state, warning them of their legal obligation to certify election results based solely on vote results. Otherwise, there will be “swift action to ensure legal certification of the election results,” along with “possible civil and criminal charges against these members for their actions,” Benson warned.

Michigan is an example of the futility of the tactic. The new state law makes clear that canvassing boards cannot block certification, but Benson said in an interview that he still worries that such an effort, even if legally condemned, could help spread false claims about the November election.

“Misinformation and talking points emerge that allow others – especially politicians – to continue to cast doubt on the accuracy of the election results,” she said.

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Riccardi reported from Denver and Cappelletti from Lansing, Michigan. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.