(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Georgia Governor Kemp cannot remove Election Board Members, according to GA Attorney General [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-06 Almost two weeks ago, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp asked the office of Georgia’s Attorney General for legal guidance. Kemp wanted to know whether or not he had legal authority, as Georgia’s Governor, to remove (fire) Election Board Members. Specifically, Kemp was interested in removing three board members who have been vocal Trump fanatics — vowing to not certify votes should Trump be defeated in November (www.newsweek.com/...). I wrote a summary of this event here: www.dailykos.com/… x Update: Kemp’s office is asking the AG for guidance on whether he has the authority to remove members of the State Election Board. Voting rights groups, Democrats and even some Republicans have raised alarms about the rightwing majority’s recent votes. #gapol https://t.co/XcMfdAzkbR pic.twitter.com/SSuacGTs0d — Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) August 26, 2024 The Georgian Attorney General offered a reply to Kemp today, and I have to say I am on one hand surprised while not surprised on the other hand. I first saw this story from CNN (www.cnn.com/...), but I did not trust them in the slightest since they only offered one quotation from Chris Carr (the Georgia AG) that did not support their article’s title. So I went to Carr’s official Georgia AG site and found his full opinion, which you can read here: law.georgia.gov/… Upon reading the “official opinion” from Carr, it is clear that the “Yes or No” answer to Kemp’s question is not “Kemp doesn’t need to investigate Georgia election board members who pushed new rule changes,” contrary to CNN’s claims. Carr’s answer is that, in these circumstances, Kemp DOES NOT have the authority to remove the Election Board Members. Let’s break down what Carr wrote. Carr first cites the “Official Code Georgia Annotated” (OCGA): Carr then explains: “We begin by examining the statute’s plain language, reading the text in its most natural and reasonable way, as an ordinary speaker of the English language would… The General Assembly chose the phrase ‘formal charges’ to indicate the requirement of something more than simply a generalized grievance brought by a member of the public.” This nuance is important — Carr uses this language to explain away any propriety or legal power Kemp would have to remove the Election Board Members. See, it was lowly plebian Georgia Democrats who called on Kemp to remove the Election Board Members. That is problematic for Carr. Carr is saying that these Georgia Democrats do not have the power or authority to leverage a “formal charge” against the board members. Does Kemp have the legal authority to remove board members? Yes, sure, of course!… But only if formal charges are brought against those board members. What those formal charges would need to be, who knows — but according to Carr, private citizens raising complaints does not rise to the level of “formal charges.” Should these board members be removed by Kemp? Yes probably, but Kemp cannot do it because the complaint raised was not “formal.” This opinion by Carr is tantamount to: “You did everything right in your application, but you submitted it to the wrong filing bin and you did not use the little rubber stamp that I like, so I am going to throw everything out. Better luck next time.” Carr ends his opinion with: “Based on the foregoing, it is my official opinion that as used in O.C.G.A. §45-10-4, the phrase ‘[u]pon formal charges being filed’ should not be interpreted to mean that a citizen can simply submit information to the Governor and trigger the hearing process contemplated by the Code Section.” SO, CNN, Carr’s answer is: “NO.” Again, I presented the correct information in the span of 30 minutes with a budget of $0. CNN also screwed up by making the opinion of Carr sound like it was the end of the story — like Carr’s opinion is somehow binding for Kemp. It is not. This whole thing is just Carr’s legal opinion — what HE THINKS would happen should Kemp attempt to remove the board members and then gets taken to court. Carr’s opinion is what he thinks a Georgian Judge would say at trial. Kemp still has the power, given this legal opinion, to attempt to remove the board members anyway and risk being taken to court. Kemp could, in my own legalistic opinion, state something along the lines of (and again this is just my farting into the wind): “Based upon the legal advice of Georgia AG Carr, I am making the decision to remove the Election Board Members in question, given as that I have the power to remove Board Members upon formal charges being filed. This means that I do possess the power to remove said members. While, as the Attorney General stated, my office may not have received ‘formal charges,’ I disagree with the AG’s defining of ‘formal.’ My office was informed of infractions by the board members, and as such taking action based upon this information by citizens is tantamount to leveraging formal charges from my office itself. The Office of the Georgia Governor should not be hamstrung in its capacity to enforce ethical guidelines on the employees of the Georgian Government (a necessary and vital function of the Office of the Governor) just because of a vague, textual, technical, and undefined oversight.” Or something like that. I do not know what the best or most accurate legal language would be, but I am more than certain a good argument could be made that is along the lines of “this concept of ‘formal charges’ is stupid — if someone reports malfeasance on the part of government officials, it is the obligation and duty of the government to conduct a full investigation and subsequently clean house.” So — two takeaways: 1) The Georgia AG’s answer to Kemp is “No, under these circumstances,” and 2) The Georgia AG’s answer is not by itself binding upon Kemp. That all being said, it will be interesting to see what Kemp’s next move is after the issuance of this “official opinion.” I have a strong suspicion that this is all smoke and mirrors to provide cover for Kemp to not remove the Election Board Members. We shall see. ***SIDENOTE*** This is unrelated to the diary above, but I wanted to write a short life update. I have not been writing very much lately, nor shall I be for a short while. This discussion is worthy of its own diary entry. That said, I have slowly been recovering from Long Covid — bit by bit everyday. I am now at the point of trying to recover my life and set myself back onto the tracks of a life path. I do not intend to return to practicing law (among other reasons, my physicians have warned me that I am really not physically capable of living that life anymore), so I am attempting to apply for PhDs in History. My goal is to get a PhD in History (my true scholastic passion), and then become a professor of History someday. Getting applications done and submitted is where I have been and will be for sometime. This drastically cuts away at time and, more importantly, energy that I have to pay attention to news/write diaries here. I do not expect anyone to particularly care, but for anyone who does this is why I have been AWOL and will continue to be less active than I have been the last few months. Thanks. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/6/2268368/-Georgia-Governor-Kemp-cannot-remove-Election-Board-Members-according-to-GA-Attorney-General?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/