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The election is already underway, and as the first votes are getting cast, election deniers are also at work spreading lies to divide and distract us and undermine democracy. We saw this before in 2020, when politicians who lost tried to leverage mis- and disinformation, conspiracy theories, meritless lawsuits, and even political violence to overturn the voice of the people. Don’t listen to the lies. After voters cast their ballots, our electoral system has a thorough system of checks and balances to ensure results are valid and accurate. Knowing the facts in advance can help us counter efforts to derail a free and fair election.
What is election certification?
Election certification is the final, ceremonial stage of the canvassing process in which ballots are validated, counted, and totaled. Importantly, certification is not intended to make sure vote totals are correct or identify errors—those checks happen before certification.
The exact process to certify an election varies across states and even within states. Some localities have an election board made up of multiple officials, while others have one elected official who certifies elections. Similarly, at the state level, results can either be certified by one official (such as the Governor or Secretary of State), by the state legislature, or by a multi-member board. Moreover, local and state deadlines for certification vary. You can see your state’s local and statewide deadlines here. The 2022 Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA) sets a mandatory federal deadline for presidential elections: each state must certify its results by December 12th.
Refusals to certify
Prior to the 2020 election, local election officials rarely voted against certifying elections—it’s long been a routine part of the election process. However, in 2020, some local officials in Nevada, Michigan, and Georgia refused to certify their jurisdiction’s election results. Since November 2020, there have been at least 15 cases across eight states, including the electorally consequential states of Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, of refusals to certify. Delayed certifications in 2020, 2022, and in the 2024 primary mostly relied on debunked conspiracy theories of systematic voter fraud.
Fortunately, a recent court case in Georgia struck down a new rule set by the state election board in August that empowered county board members to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification…” and would have given them the authority to refuse to certify the responsibility—an unprecedented and unnecessary role for these boards. The judge ruled that certification is a mandatory duty and that if local election officials were “free to play investigator, prosecutor, and judge and so—because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud—refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced.”
What this means for 2024
If county or state officials refuse their duty to certify elections, other state officials, candidates, and even voters can use the judicial system to compel them to fulfil this mandatory responsibility. Some states, like Michigan, have made it so state officials can certify local results if county officials refuse to do so. In five states, including Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina, courts can appoint someone to certify results if an official refuses to comply with a court order. Moreover, there are legal ways to hold officials who refuse to certify elections legally accountable. Recently, a former election official from Cochise County, Arizona who didn’t to certify the 2022 election plead guilty to “failing to perform her duty as an election officer.” While states have legal ways to eventually compel officials to certify results, some could still try to delay the process.
There are ways to identify the risk of a refusal to certify elections. These risk factors include close and high-stakes races in 2020, having more than 50 different jurisdictions with certification power, election deniers holding key offices, and a record of local officials refusing to certify since 2020. The electorally consequential states of Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are among those at higher risk.
Delays in certification don’t come without cost: they give conspiracy theories and disinformation time to take root and spread distrust in our electoral system The same bad actors who incited the January 6th, 2020attack on the Capitol to sow doubt and overturn the will of the people are carrying out a strategic and coordinated effort to interfere with the results this year—and we shouldn’t fall for it. It is important to remember that certification doesn’t happen on election night, even though the media often reports the “winner” that night. In reality, the routine process of counting votes and certifying elections always takes time, especially as more voters take advantage of vote-by-mail option.
The good news: we stopped these attacks before and can do it again. If local or state officials refuse to certify their election results, effectively refusing to count their jurisdiction’s votes, it’s important to speak up and demand every valid ballot is counted as the law requires—and officials who abuse their power by refusing to certify can be held legally accountable for their inaction.
