County Election Deniers Lay Groundwork for November

Far right election deniers showed us their strategy to interfere in the November election. At this month’s meeting of the Forsyth County Board of Voter Registrations and Elections (BRE) on June 4, eight people claimed to speak on their own behalf, though several are repeat mass voter challengers and election deniers who appear to take their cues from national groups.

In Rolling Stone this month, a source close to the former president says, “Georgia is our laboratory,...If you can get this up and running in Georgia, you get a road map for other states, maybe the country as a whole.”
“The effort to suppress the vote in Georgia happens year-round, and the counter effort needs to be equally, if not more, robust,” said Saira Draper in the same article. She is a Democratic state representative who worked on voter-protection issues for the Biden campaign in 2020 and points to the need for “defending democracy every day, and for every election.” 
The people who made the comments at the meeting offered the usual disproven complaints:  the 2020 election was stolen, Biden could not have won, Dominion voting machines cannot be trusted, and more. They suggested that their version of “election integrity” should appeal to all, regardless of party. 
Claiming a High Road to Undermine Certification
Some of the comments illustrated their ground work to sow doubt in election processes and in the performance of the county election board: 

• Finger-pointing at the Board itself, claiming that its members may not intend to uphold free and fair elections (the state legislature passed SB202 in 2021 to allow the State Board of Elections to take over any county board it deems to be “underperforming”). 
  
• The continued claim: “I’m not saying anyone here has done anything fraudulent,” seeming to draw a line separating staff administration of elections and the Board members who certify. Maybe the claim is meant to avoid charges of defamation.
  

Worth noting is that these are the exact types of claims made at the Cherokee County Board of Elections meeting the day before. One commenter went so far as to admit, “We just want to keep (Cherokee County) red.” At that same meeting, a new Board of Commissioners’ Democratic nominee was appointed to the Board, a man who most recently voted Republican.  
In Fulton County, a far right elections board member refused to certify the Primary Election results. Earlier this month on the State Board of Elections, a moderate Republican was replaced with a party member who has no experience in elections administration but was heartily endorsed by the state GOP chairman, known for his endorsement of Trump. 
How This Could Play Out in November 
The disinformation and the installation of hard right officials–all enabled by suppressive legislation–is a pre-game to the chaos we witnessed after November 2020, when the hard right cast doubt on the General Election which resulted in the violence of Jan 6. Only this time they’ve had more time to prepare. 
If the General Election is close–and especially if ballot counting/tabulation of returns takes a long time, as it always will in Fulton County since it is the state’s largest county– the state elections board could take control of a county’s counting process (having created an inquiry function that allows it to delay certification). If the race is close and the state or county does not like the outcome, elections board officials at the state or local level could refuse to certify the vote, in turn delaying the electoral result, sending the race to court, and allowing Trump to claim whatever he wants about the race. 
What to Do
Deniers’ plans thrive on regular citizens not knowing how the process is supposed to work; arm yourself with information and don’t be afraid to share it with people you know. 
(A note: Forsyth County’s BRE does not livestream or tape its meetings, which means these efforts are not on public display or record for the public to view [nor is it documented in the formal meeting summary]. A letter sent to the BRE in April 2024 requesting microphones for greater clarity and video recording so that county residents can view meetings, remains unanswered.)