Obscure, unelected state government panels aren’t usually a hot election topic. But the Georgia State Election Board has drawn well-deserved national attention with its outrageous actions on Tuesday to pass antidemocratic changes to the battleground state’s election rules. It has provided fodder for Donald Trump, earning sharply partisan praise at his recent Atlanta rally. Now Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp should reverse its rogue actions. 

The board used to be a sleepy bipartisan backwater that kept well away from controversy. But earlier this year, the GOP-controlled state Legislature appointed two new members to the five-person panel, transforming it into a Trump-aligned government body. Three of the board’s five members have expressed doubts that President Joe Biden won the state in the 2020 election. The board’s meetings have become a haven for false election conspiracy theories, many based on Trump’s 2020 election lies.

Now the board’s MAGA majority is trying to change Georgia’s election rules just ahead of the contest. Its first attempt came last month, only to be reversed after a lawsuit accused the three members of holding an unlawful meeting to ram through the changes. This week, though, they resumed their headlong charge for the Republican nominee. 

One of the two new rules passed by the board on Tuesday lets local elections officials halt vote-counting and delay or even outright refuse certification if they contend there are any irregularities, essentially making the certification of election results discretionary. (Georgia law states in multiple places that local election board officials shall perform their duties — meaning their duties are mandatory, not discretionary). Other proposed changes would increase workload demands on overburdened election workers, which could overwhelm county elections offices and ultimately slow down or stop certification.

These eleventh-hour changes are supported by Republican Party officials, GOP operatives at the Republican National Committee and MAGA-connected “election integrity” activists. These include local elections officials and GOP officials who most likely believe Trump was cheated out of the 2020 election.

And all this builds on similar efforts in 2020, when a Coffee County elections official delayed certification of Biden’s Georgia victory and refused to validate the recount results, citing MAGA-backed election conspiracies. The same official allegedly helped Trump campaign operatives breach Coffee County’s voting data days before Jan. 6. According to CNN, Coffee County was specifically cited in draft federal executive orders for seizing voting machines that were presented to Trump in a chaotic Oval Office meeting on Dec. 18, 2020. In the same meeting, Rudy Giuliani alluded to a plan to gain “voluntary access” to Georgia voting machines.

The foundation for obstructing certification of the 2024 election results is being laid in Georgia. These newly passed rules changes, along with other proposed changes still being considered by the board, follow refusals from Republican county election board members in Georgia to certify election results in the 2023 local elections and the 2024 primary even though there is no legitimate doubts about the results.

And it doesn’t stop there. After Fulton County’s 2024 primary, Fulton County Election Board member Julie Adams filed a suit challenging a badly needed law that prevents local officials from refusing certification. Adams is represented by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute and belongs to the Election Integrity Network, whose founder, Cleta Mitchell, joined Trump’s infamous call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Trump’s 2020 election interference playbook hasn’t changed, but the MAGA operation has become more sophisticated. Now, there are election deniers holding local elections positions in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania (in addition to Georgia). GOP officials have resisted certifying results in Arizona, Michigan and Nevada. 

But Georgia elections are facing an attack from Trump’s operation that seems more intense than any of its other efforts across the country. The state’s current lieutenant governor signed a certificate saying Trump won Georgia in 2020 and certifying himself as a false elector. After failing to overturn his 2020 loss, it seems Trump aims to win Georgia by any means, aided by the State Election Board. Trump may be hinting at this strategy, recently claiming he “didn’t need the votes,” an odd statement for a presidential candidate.

Trump’s remarks could be a hint to the re-use of his operation’s 2020 playbook, only better planned and executed. The person best positioned to stop this is Gov. Brian Kemp. Though Kemp has continued to sign voter suppression bills inspired by Trump’s “big lie” into law, he received bipartisan praise for refusing to go along with Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Will Kemp step up again to defend Georgia’s elections from MAGA sabotage? Or will he continue to egg them on as he has in the past couple of Georgia’s legislative sessions? 

Georgia law gives Kemp the authority to investigate members of the election board and remove and replace them if they’ve violated Georgia law, which it certainly seems they did by holding an unlawful meeting. Even though Kemp supports Trump’s run for president, he should agree: Trump must win Georgians’ votes fair and square.

But the response doesn’t stop with the governor, of course. Others have an important role to play, as well. In the last presidential cycle, pro-democracy activists like Georgia’s Fair Fight (for which one of the co-authors, Groh-Wargo, serves as CEO) built voter protection operations in every crucial battleground state, exposed Trump’s callous voter suppression scheme and helped turn out the vote in 2020 that secured Biden’s Georgia win and delivered control of the U.S. Senate for Democrats. The pro-democracy ecosystem is once again working to protect voters’ ability to stay on the rolls, access the ballot, vote and have their votes counted in 2024.

Voters are the last and ultimately most critical line of defense. The best way to ensure election results are certified in a timely manner is with large turnout and decisive margins. Voters everywhere should also check their voter registration status regularly and get their friends and family registered today. It’s also not too early to make a plan to vote, sign up to be a poll worker in your community or get involved with your state Democratic Party’s voter protection team. If we exercise our freedom to vote, we can stop the MAGA election sabotage scheme.