Arguably no state has taken more provocative pre-election steps than Georgia, where conspiratorial Republican officials on the Georgia State Election Board have recently created a series of unnecessary “reforms” that might very well create election-administration problems next month. That’s not, however, the only area of concern in the Peach State.

After the 2020 elections, several local Republican election board members refused to certify elections for a variety of assorted and dubious reasons, and there are plenty of concerns that there will be related tactics in this year’s cycle. It’s against this backdrop that a Georgia judge issued a ruling this week rejecting this as a possibility. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on Tuesday:

Certifying elections is a required duty of county election boards in Georgia, and they’re not allowed to refuse finalizing results based on suspicions of miscounts or fraud, a Fulton County judge ruled Tuesday. Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney rejected claims brought by Fulton County election board member Julie Adams, who voted against certifying this spring’s presidential primary. McBurney ruled that Georgia law requires certification, and county election boards don’t have any discretion not to do so.

“If election superintendents were, as plaintiff urges, free to play investigator, prosecutor, jury, and judge and so — because of a unilateral determination of error or fraud — refuse to certify election results, Georgia voters would be silenced,” McBurney wrote. “Our Constitution and our election code do not allow for that to happen.”

In other words, there might be legitimate questions in some areas in some elections, but as the state judge explained, it’s not up to local election boards to adjudicate those questions.

Tristan Snell, who provides legal commentary for MSNBC, described the ruling as a “huge victory for democracy” and a “huge defeat for Trump’s attempts to scuttle the election.” Several other legal and election experts praised McBurney’s decision.

Indeed, my colleague Lisa Rubin published a report last month in which she characterized this case as one of the “most critical” trials of the 2024 election season. Lisa explained:

Imagine a world in which local election board members are empowered, through the guise of doing their own “research,” to delay or refuse the certification of county results. That could hold up the certification of the entire state’s results and even potentially its certificate appointing electors. And if that were to happen, Georgia’s missing electors would be subtracted from the total needed to win the electoral college. Put another way, the failure to certify thousands of votes could end up depriving the rightful winner of a presidency voted upon by nearly 200 million.

With this in mind, it’s a big deal that McBurney ruled that Georgia law requires certification, and the matter is not discretionary for members of local election boards.

The ruling, incidentally, coincides with the start of early voting in Georgia.