In one in every of its first official strikes underneath its new chief, Ken Martin, the Democratic Nationwide Committee is wading right into a lawsuit over Georgia’s much-publicized and still-disputed election guidelines, together with a requirement that ballots be counted by hand.
The committee on Friday filed an amicus temporary within the case, signaling its curiosity in how the lawsuit is resolved. The temporary argues that the State Election Board, which handed the principles, didn’t have the authority to take action, and that the principles violated state election legal guidelines.
By specializing in an election lawsuit on the outset of Mr. Martin’s four-year tenure, he and the celebration are aiming to ship a message that democracy and voting rights will stay central to the Democratic platform and might be handled as key points heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
“To the great annoyance of MAGA Republicans in Georgia, the D.N.C. is making it clear: There are no off-days when it comes to protecting democracy,” Mr. Martin stated in a press release. “Politicians don’t decide our elections — voters do. As Republican officials in Georgia have made clear, these new rules were made up by Republicans in the run-up to November’s election and don’t make our elections fairer or stronger, they are an attempt to sow distrust in our elections.”
Democrats have been wrestling with how greatest to reply to President Trump and his administration and place themselves for future elections. After an election by which Mr. Trump was repeatedly labeled a menace to democracy but received each battleground state, some Democrats have pushed for a message that’s extra targeted on the economic system and kitchen-table points. The D.N.C.’s temporary is supposed to indicate that democracy will stay a spotlight, too.
The case earlier than the Georgia Supreme Court docket was filed by the Republican Nationwide Committee, interesting a ruling from a decrease court docket in October flattening a number of guidelines that have been handed final yr by the Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board. One rule acknowledged that after election officers used machines to tabulate outcomes, they need to rely the ballots by hand to make sure that the general variety of votes matched up. One other would have allowed native election officers to conduct their very own “reasonable inquiry” into any anomalies they believed occurred within the election.
A decide discovered the actions taken by the State Election Board to be “illegal, unconstitutional and void.” Although the R.N.C. swiftly filed an enchantment after the choice, the State Supreme Court docket declined to expedite a listening to and make a ruling earlier than the November election.
A spokeswoman for the Republican Nationwide Committee didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Ought to Georgia’s Supreme Court docket aspect with the Republican Nationwide Committee and reinstate the principles, it might power a pointy shift of election administration within the state. Important delays in election outcomes could be seemingly as counties complied with hand-counting ballots to make sure they matched the quantity within the voting machines.
