Democrats ask judge to force Georgia’s GOP governor to purge Trump’s allies from ‘rogue’ elections board

Ex-president’s allies on elections board have made enemies among Republicans and Democrats in their push to open up avenues for decertification of elections

Democrats in Georgia have filed a lawsuit against three Trump allies on the state elections board, which has recently moved to require several changes to election procedures in the state.

The suit was led by state senator Nabilah Islam Parkes and alleges that the three election board members violated the law when they pushed through a round of changes.

Democrats say these will allow local election officials to unilaterally decline to certify the results of elections, doing so at an allegedly illegal meeting. They further allege that this could cause delays in Georgia reporting its results in the upcoming election.

“Georgia's Election Board has been hijacked by extreme MAGA operatives, changing election rules to help Trump. State law is clear, Kemp has a duty to act, but he's abdicated responsibility. If the governor won't stop MAGA from hijacking our election, a judge will force him to,” Islam Parkes said on Wednesday.

She added: “The Governor must do his job and convene a hearing to start the process in removing these rogue State Election Board members who are violating the law.”

The Governor must do his job and convene a hearing to start the process in removing these rogue State Election Board members who are violating the law. https://t.co/O5B1VP2QXf

— Nabilah Islam Parkes (@NabilahIslam) September 25, 2024

The latest legal action follows a lawsuit filed in August against the state elections board for the same reason filed by the state Democratic Party of Georgia along with Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign and the national Democratic Party.

The latest suit filed Wednesday by Islam Parkes and her allies seeks to force the state’s GOP governor to begin the process which could result in the removal of the three GOP members accused of violating the law.

While Democrats are leading the charge against the Trump-supporting elections board members, Republicans in the state also agree that the board has gone rogue. The GOP attorney general of Georgia issued an opinion stating that the board overstepped its bounds by issuing the new rules, while the state’s governor remains between a rock and a hard place.

Brian Kemp, a Republican, fought against Donald Trump’s stolen election claims in 2020 and in the weeks following the election but has since sought to repair his relationship with the MAGA right.

Kemp has resisted calls to hold hearings in response to petitions from Democratic lawmakers in the state asking him to begin hearings to determine whether the three Trump supporters will be purged from the Elections Board, but a judge’s order could force him to do it.

“We have a board that appears to be running amok, and we have one avenue, the governor, for removing them in instances when they are breaking the law,” said Cathy Woolard, a former chairwoman of the Fulton County Board of Registration & Elections, after the suit was filed Wednesday in a statement to The Washington Post. “We simply must take this action in order to attempt to force him to do his job.”

Georgia was a shock pickup for Democrats in 2020 and was one of the key battleground state losses that led to Donald Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden that year. Current polls show him maintaining a slim lead in the state over Kamala Harris, who took over the Democratic ticket in July.