DeKalb GA News

Marci McCarthy, Chairwoman of the DeKalb County Republican Party, said that election rules recently adopted by the Georgia Election Board are a ‘significant step forward’ that will boost the integrity of elections.

“Georgia’s State Election Board's adoption of the reconciliation rule is another significant step forward in safeguarding election integrity,” McCarthy told DeKalb GA News. “By ensuring that the number of ballots matches the number of voters, this rule reinforces the principle of ‘one person, one vote.’ Additionally, it guards against the certification of inaccurate or erroneous results, such as double scanning of ballots, further strengthening public trust in our electoral process.”

The Georgia Election Board has adopted an important certification rule, requiring reconciliation of voters to ballots before election tallies can be certified at the precinct level. Supporters of the proposal have compared reconciliation to the process required of bank tellers at the end of each day.

“Just as the bank teller’s cash drawer must reconcile daily, reconciliation of the voters to the ballots to the number of votes is imperative to ensure accurate election results,” supporters have argued.

The new ruling implements the statutory requirement of reconciliation, which already was codified in state election law.

The Republican majority Georgia Election Board voted 3-2 to adopt the rule. Chairman John Fervier, a Republican appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp, voted with the board's lone Democrat, Sara Tindall Ghazal, appointed by the state Democratic Party. 

Voting in favor were Dr. Janice W. Johnston, appointed by the state GOP; Rick Jeffares, appointed by the state Senate; and Janelle King, appointed by the state House.

Other features of the new rule include assurance of "one person-one vote," and it guards against certification of inaccurate or erroneous results, such as double scanning of ballots.

Further, through the process of reconciliation, the number of voters to ballots from all methods of voting - absentee, advance voting and on election day - must match. At each precinct, the Board will compare the number of unique names by each voting method to the number of ballots cast of each type.

The DeKalb County Republican Party is a conservative organization seeking to educate, motivate, and mobilize Republican citizens in DeKalb County. In addition to running Republican candidates for office, they provide monthly breakfast meetings for DeKalb citizens to meet their elected representatives and discuss issues.