John Jefferson
Nearly three dozen officials who have refused to certify elections since 2020 remain in office and will play a role in certifying the presidential vote in nearly every battleground state this fall, according to a new report by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a watchdog group.
The report underscores the concerns that Donald Trump and allies will attack the certification process at the local level as part of any possible effort to contest a loss in the election. In a presidential election, there are tight deadlines at the local, state and federal levels to certify the vote. Delaying the vote at the local level could cause states to miss deadlines and open up protracted court battles and give oxygen to conspiracy theories.
Concerns about certification also escalated this month when the state board of election in Georgia passed a new rule that allows local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” if they believe there is a discrepancy in the results.
“The legal ground game that was brought to bear against certifying the election in 2020 was junior varsity compared to what we are going to see this year,” said Joshua Matz, a lawyer on the board of Crew. “There is now a much better organized, much more sophisticated, far better funded and far more intentional effort to thwart the smooth and steady certification of election results required by the law.”
Certification is generally considered a ministerial duty and the officials charged with doing it can’t unilaterally decide not to officialize election results, legal experts say. Ballot disputes and discrepancies are typically adjudicated before an election moves to the certification stage.
“Each of these states have procedures for examining potential voter fraud and voter irregularities and none of those procedures concern the certification process at the country level. In other words, there are things you can do. County elections officials denying certification is none of those things. That’s not allowed under the law,” said Noah Bookbinder, the president and CEO of Crew.
No effort to block certification thus far has been successful. Each time that local officials have tried, they have been either forced to certify by a court, outvoted by their fellow commissioners or reversed course. Few have faced any consequence, with two notable exceptions.
In Arizona, Kris Mayes, the attorney general, criminally charged two supervisors in Cochise county, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, after they refused to meet the deadline for certifying the 2022 election. Both Crosby and Judd have pleaded not guilty and are still in office.
In 2022, Couy Griffin, a county commissioner in Otero county, New Mexico, also refused to certify the results of a primary election. Griffin was convicted of illegally entering the US Capitol on January 6 and was subsequently removed from his position under the 14th amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding office in a case filed by Crew. He remains the only elected official to participate in January 6 to be removed from office.
Kira Lerner contributed reporting
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