Georgia Election Deniers Deliver for Trump

At his rally last Saturday night, Donald Trump praised three members of the Georgia State Election Board. Calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory,” Trump lavished praise and attention on these members of the obscure state agency — by name.

The odd exchange raised more than a few eyebrows. When I wrote about it earlier this week, I suggested that the least damning explanation was that the “three who Trump mentioned from the stage: Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King have refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020.” We now know that the real reason for Trump’s support for the election officials was far more sinister.

Late yesterday, the board approved a new rule that seeks to expand the role and authority of county boards of election in the certification process. This new rule redefines the certification process to include “reasonable inquiry” into whether the results are “complete and accurate.”

The vote to adopt this new rule was 3-2, with the Trump-endorsed members commanding the majority. It seems that Trump was prescient when he said these three members would fight for his “victory.”

That this violates state law seems clear. The obligation of county boards to certify elections is mandatory and ministerial. Nothing in Georgia law permits individual members to interpose their own investigations or judgment into a largely ceremonial function involving basic math.

For Trump, these legal niceties are beside the point. He wants to be able to pick and choose which election results are accepted based solely on the outcome. This rule is a step in that direction.

If the new rule survives the inevitable court challenge, Trump will have another powerful tool in his election subversion arsenal. If it is struck down, which seems more likely, he will claim to be the victim of biased judges and an unspecified conspiracy.

If this sounds a lot like the approach Project 2025 takes to the federal civil service, it is because it is the same.

The larger lesson from this episode is how much more methodical Trump and his allies’ approach to subvert the 2024 election is than in previous years. In 2016, the Trump campaign barely had a legal presence in the battleground states. In 2020, the Trump campaign’s approach to the post-election was comically inept.

Rather than abandon election denialism, however, the GOP has embraced it. Instead of recoiling from the humiliating performance of its legal team, the Trump campaign is redoubling its efforts, but with an important modification.

Unable to convince even conservative judges to reject the lawful actions of election officials, Republicans have spent the last four years replacing the election officials with election deniers. In an extreme example of personnel being policy, Republicans seek to change the outcome of elections by changing who counts the votes and certifies the elections.

If this sounds a lot like the approach Project 2025 takes to the federal civil service, it is because it is the same. By driving out good honest workers and replacing them with Trump loyalists, in both instances Republicans seek specific outcomes regardless of the merits. It is the extreme version of the ends justifying the means.

What we saw yesterday in Georgia is not likely the end of the story. From experience, we know two things about Donald Trump: he is completely transactional and there is always another transaction. He didn’t give a verbal seal of approval to the three Georgia State Election Board members simply to gain advantage in a single new rule.

We can be sure that this is just the start. Trump demands absolute loyalty while giving none in return. He expects that these three board members — and the other election deniers he has placed in positions of power around the country — to deliver his preferred outcome one hundred percent of the time, regardless of the facts or law.

That is what makes Donald Trump so dangerous and why we must be alert to election deniers wherever we find them.