Fulton County election workers process absentee ballots on Nov. 4 in Union City, Ga.
Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images
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Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images
ATLANTA – Every county in Georgia has certified the results of the 2024 general election, a significant step after some Republican local election board members earlier this year refused to certify other results.
Usually an uncontroversial procedural step, disputes over election certification emerged in several states in 2020, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump raised false claims of widespread fraud.
The 2020 example raises concerns about what will happen after the 2024 election, with Trump back on the ballot, although officials and election experts maintain that mandatory certification and legal guardrails will reduce disruption.
But with Trump’s victory in Georgia and in every swing state across the country this year, claims of election fraud have largely faded — as have concerns about certification.
Particular focus on Georgia
Each state has its own deadlines for certifying election results at the local and state levels. Georgia local deadlines include the earliest.
Ahead of the 2024 election, the battle over certification was most pronounced in Georgia, where Republicans on the State Board of Elections approved a rule allowing local election board members to vote against election results.
A judge later struck down the rule, declaring it “illegal, illegal and unconstitutional.” Georgian law says the local Election Board must certify the election results at 17:00 on November 12.
But that didn’t stop some local election board members from pushing the court to rule that they had the discretion to choose not to certify the results.
One local Republican councilwoman, Julie Adams of Fulton County, is pushing ahead with her own lawsuit, even though a judge ruled her certification duty is mandatory, not discretionary.
Adams has refused to certify the election results on several occasions, saying he has not been able to independently verify the integrity of the results. After the November election that saw Trump and others win in Georgia, he voted to certify the results, although he expressed reservations.
“I think it’s absurd that there’s a court order saying I have to vote yes,” Adams said Tuesday.
Fulton County election board member Julie Adams, Republican, is seen at the Fulton County Elections Center and Operations Center Nov. 5.
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John Bazemore / AP
In Metro Atlanta’s most populous counties – DeKalb, Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett – at least one local Republican council member abstained or voted against the certification results from elections earlier in the year. After the November election, all four boards unanimously certified it.
Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will complete the state’s certification before presidential electors meet in December.
“Election integrity does not happen only at 11 o’clock, as some fringe activists claim to have tried to do this last month. It has been planned years in advance,” Raffensperger told reporters Tuesday morning. “I’m sure every district will do well and it’s done.”
While concerns about irregularities and certification have disappeared, they have not disappeared entirely. Some local councilors pressured election officials to clarify minor discrepancies in the results before voting to certify them.
Some Republicans, like Fulton County councilman Michael Heekin, are now calling on the state legislature to empower local election board members with discretion to vote against certification results in upcoming elections.
And some activists have signaled they will continue to raise concerns about election administration, such as criticism of Georgia’s voting machines and voter list maintenance.
“really different”
But for local voting officials who have been preparing to weather the storm for weeks after voting ends, the calm feels like a seismic shift compared to 2020.
“It’s very different,” said Lisa Tollefson, county clerk for Rock County, Wis. “For the past four years, I’ve been making nasty phone calls at work and we’ve had police protection for a while.”
His county board of canvassers met Monday to verify the results of the general election. At the same meeting in 2020, there will be a dozen or more observers, Tollefson said.
This year: “I have one observer,” he said. “That’s it.”
Lisa Posthumus Lyons, clerk in Kent County, Mich., media attention on the election administration also died almost immediately after Michigan called Trump.
“All eyes were on us, and the second we got to midnight almost, it was like they were going to turn into pumpkins or something and they were gone,” Lyons said. “It’s not just less tense, it just seems less interesting to people.”
NPR’s Miles Parks contributed reporting.
