Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger
Not long after rejecting outgoing President Donald Trump’s election gripes, the Supreme Court of Georgia received and shredded an appeal by the lame duck’s proxy on Monday.
Undeterred by the Supreme Court of Georgia shredding outgoing President Trump’s lawsuit late Saturday, Trump “elector” Paul Boland went to the same court on Monday hoping his uninterrupted string of defeats may meet a different outcome. He is represented by Kurt Hilbert, who also represented Trump before the same court.
Boland sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), several members of the state Election Board, and the slate of Joe Biden’s Electoral College electors earlier this month, peddling conspiracy theories quickly dismissed by Superior Court Judge Emily K. Richardson. In his filed complaint, Boland alleged that Raffensperger allowed non-residents to vote in the state’s presidential election and failed to properly match mail-in ballot signatures to voter registration files, asking the court to direct state officials to de-certify the final vote tabulations. None of that is true. Georgia’s ballots were recounted by hand and signature-matched.
Beyond being factually lacking, Boland’s grievances floundered from myriad procedural defects flagged by the court. Judge Richardson rejected the lawsuit based on the doctrine of laches (timeliness), and noted that, among other things, Boland had filed his lawsuit against the wrong parties for an “election contest” under OCGA §21-2-520, which must be filed against a candidate, potential candidate, or election superintendent. She also stated that Boland lacked standing to “raise generalized grievances against election officials’ conduct,” and failed to state a claim.
But that, combined with the fact that the state’s electors on Monday certified its votes for President-elect Biden, didn’t stop the Trump-supporting voter from taking his case to the Peach State’s highest court.
The 164-page “emergency” petition asked the court to grant a writ of certiorari in the matter and overturn the will of the state’s voters.
“Nothing in federal law requires states to resolve controversies over electoral votes prior to the meeting of the Electoral College, and indeed, there is no set deadline for a state to transmit to Congress a certification of which slate of Presidential Electors has been determined to be the valid one,” the complaint stated. “Appellants believe and allege the federal so-called “Safe Harbor statute is unconstitutional facially and as applied to the Georgia Elections Code as it conflicts with the ability of voters to challenge and make an election contest after a recount, if that recount falls before, during or after the Safe Harbor deadline. The Safe Harbor statute is void for vagueness and because it creates a due process and equal protection conflict the Georgia Constitution and Election Code.”
Boland lost immediately.
Read the Boland filing below:
Boland GA Supreme Court Appeal by Law&Crime on Scribd
[image via CBS News screengrab]