Since 2020, nearly three dozen officials have refused to certify election results, yet they remain in office and will undoubtedly play a role in certifying the presidential election this fall. There are tight deadlines for certification in a presidential election, and delaying the vote could cause states to miss deadlines and open the possibility of lengthy court battles.
“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 the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics. “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.”
What's Happening in Swing States
Nearly 70 pro-Trump election officials who have previously questioned the validity of elections or refused to certify election results are currently working in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
Although none of these refusals or delays have held up in court, election officials in Georgia and Arizona are attempting to make certification discretionary, giving local election officials more say and control over which results get certified without having to bring them before a state or local judge.
In Georgia’s Fulton County, which includes the heavily-Democratic city of Atlanta, a group run by former members of the Trump administration recently sued so a GOP member of the local elections board could refuse to certify the results of a primary election.
And Georgia’s Republican-controlled state election board approved a new rule that would allow county election board members to investigate discrepancies between the number of cast ballots and the number of voters in each precinct, a move that voting rights advocates fear may permit local election officials to delay certification of the presidential election results this November.
In Michigan, two members of a county canvassing board refused to sign off on election results that led to the recall of three Republican members of the county commission until state officials warned them of their legal duty to record the final vote tally.
And in Arizona, GOP lawmakers sued to reverse the state’s requirement that local boards automatically validate their election results. Last year two elected officials in Arizona who delayed certifying election results were charged by the Arizona attorney general with conspiracy and interfering with an election officer in 2022.
Are Elections Secure?
Despite continued efforts to push baseless conspiracies by former President Trump and others in the Republican party, experts say election fraud is rare in the United States.
States that claim high instances of impersonation fraud have enacted stricter voter ID laws, although Justi Levitt, law professor at Loyola Law School, identified only 31 impersonation incidents between 2000 and 2014 out of more than 1 billion ballots cast.
Procedures are in place in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to ensure the validity of ballots. Voters are required to sign a statement or affidavit when voting by mail, and the signature can then be compared with the voter’s signature on file. Many states also require a witness signature, or even notarization for mail-in ballots. Bar codes are also used on some ballot envelopes to track processing and allow voters to make sure their ballots were received.
In the 2016 presidential election, 8,247 absentee ballots were rejected because the voter had also cast a ballot in person, although the vast majority do not appear to have been intentional attempts at fraud.
Trust in the Electoral Process
Election security measures throughout the United States remain robust, despite challenges to the system. As we move toward November, efforts to disrupt democratic procedures highlight the need for vigilance to ensure the certification process remains strong and maintains the trust of the American people.
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