State Judges in the Hot Seat: Navigating Election Cases Amid Tight Deadlines and High Stakes

Hundreds of election related cases are being filed across the country and most of these cases land in the laps of state trial judges. They must wade through detailed legal arguments concerning voting rights and ballot counting while meeting tight deadlines for rendering their decisions. In many states early voting has already started. This takes a judicial dexterity and a healthy dose of judicial independence. On this episode of Next Witness…Please, retired judges Gayle William-Byers and Thomas Hodson delve into the cases coming before state courts in Georgia, one of the seven swing states in the upcoming presidential election. The Georgia cases are representative of many of the cases being filed by litigants across the country. This episode was recorded on Wednesday, October 16 and already two major decisions were reached by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney this week. One concerned local board of election certification of election results. Judge McBurney found that the local boards do not have investigative authority, and they must certify the results and turn over any suspicions of election fraud to their local prosecutor or state law enforcement authorities. He said local boards are not free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury and judge on election fraud. That, he says, is the job of law enforcement. In the second decision, Judge McBurney issued a preliminary injunction against a new Georgia State Election Board rule requiring county election workers to hand-count the number of ballots cast in each precinct. This rule would have greatly delayed certifying election results. McBurney called the rule: “too much, too late.” He also noted there were no instructions on how to implement the rule. Shortly after recording this episode, Fulton County Judge Thomas Cox agreed with Judge McBurney’s analysis and issued an 11-page opinion striking down all the new voting and vote county rules issued by the Trump dominated Georgia State Election Board. He found them “illegal, unconstitutional, and void.” Here is a link to Judge Cox’s decision: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25225391-101624-24cv011558-georgia-election-rules-eternal-vigilance-action-final-judgment