John,

In the aftermath of the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, threats to the election certification process have only increased.

Since 2020, more than 30 rogue county officials across the country have voted to deny or delay certifying election results in violation of law, often citing false claims of voter fraud or irregularities.

Among those officials are avowed 2020 election deniers, individuals who acted as fake presidential electors for Donald Trump and a criminally convicted participant in the January 6th insurrection (who was later removed from office in a lawsuit led by CREW).

CREW just released a new report that identifies 35 rogue election officials across the country who have already refused to certify election results and may be in a position to do so again.

Our report focuses on the eight states where county officials have unlawfully refused to certify elections since 2020: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Crucially, we also identified the legal remedies available to state and federal authorities, as well as voters, to protect the certification of the 2024 election.

John, before, during, and after the 2020 elections, CREW was deeply concerned with the attempts to undermine our free and fair elections. We’ll do everything in our power to protect the certification of the 2024 election. Please support our work with a donation today →

Some states have shut down these dangerous efforts – like in Arizona and New Mexico where state authorities secured emergency court orders compelling county officials to follow the law. But the threat of disruption looms large in this year’s election.

If county officials successfully obstruct certification, it could have a cascading effect on state and federal certification deadlines.

For statewide races and races across multiple counties, county certification marks the end of one phase of a multi-step election process, and it must occur by a hard deadline to ensure later state and federal certification deadlines are met.

Some officials emboldened by former President Trump’s 2020 election denial movement now seek to weaponize this routine government process, undermining the foundations of our election infrastructure.

Their reasons for denying or delaying certification have often been brazenly lawless. For example:

• Couy Griffin, the former county official in New Mexico who a state court removed from office for engaging in the January 6th insurrection, stated: “My vote to remain a ‘no’ isn’t based on any evidence. It’s not based on any facts…It’s only based on my gut feeling and my own intuition.”
• Ron Gould and Hildy Angius, two current county officials in Arizona, said their votes to delay certification were purely a “political statement” to protest election practices in a different county.
• Some county officials in other states, such as Georgia and Pennsylvania, have withheld certification based on arbitrary and shifting demands for non-essential election records.

John, let’s be clear: no matter these officials’ motives or the sincerity of their concerns, the law gives them no “discretion” not to certify.

We’ve identified 35 county officials who have already refused to certify elections – and who could be a real threat to the 2024 election.

The good news? We know how to protect the election – and we’ll tell you how below. But first, we’re asking you to support CREW’s reporting and work to protect our democracy by making a donation today →

What happens if officials refuse to certify election results? Well, every state is different, but here are some of the legal remedies that provide a roadmap to protect the 2024 election:

• Mandamus relief (like emergency court orders compelling county officials to follow the law)
• State constitutional protections of the right to vote and to have one's vote counted
• Legal mechanisms authorizing courts to sanction, punish, and replace county officials who defy court orders to certify election results
• Criminal penalties for willfully subverting certification

Because the states administer elections, they are the first lines of defense against county-level certification subversion. But the federal government also has a vital role in enforcing relevant federal statutes and constitutional provisions protecting the right to vote.

If a state is unable or unwilling to take action against rogue county officials who threaten to disenfranchise voters in violation of federal law, the U.S. Department of Justice should intervene.

Section 11(a) of the Voting Rights Act is the federal statute most clearly implicated by a county official’s willful refusal to certify election results. It provides: “No person acting under color of law shall…willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report” a “vote” of any “person…qualified to vote.”

County officials’ refusal to certify election results could also implicate various other federal constitutional and statutory provisions, including the First, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and section 101(a) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars states from denying the right to vote based on an error or omission that is not “material” to the voter’s qualifications.

John, there are many ways that we can hold election officials accountable to their duty to certify free and fair elections.

CREW will continue to fight to hold them accountable and to protect the 2024 election – and our democracy more broadly.

If you support our work to protect our elections and fight for accountability, please help us continue the work we do at CREW with a donation today →

You can read the full report here. Thanks for reading,

Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW