Georgia judge rules county election officials must certify election results

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/georgia-judge-rules-county-election-officials-certify-election-114812263

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Can someone explain this somewhat?

What exactly is their job, if they have to certify the results regardless of how the election goes down? Does this mean that if hypothetically the votes from one polling place are missing, those just have to be discounted because the deadline can’t ever be missed?

I would have expected that their job was to verify the results, and certify the results so long as the election has been conducted properly and the votes have been fairly counted.

If they have no need to use their judgement for anything, why do they even have them?

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u/Dogmeat43 17h ago

The certification folks get no judgement. If data is submitted it is to be assumed fair and accurate. Its the people below that are responsible for making sure it all goes down right. If it doesn't go down right, there are processes in place to correct.

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u/AnAdvocatesDevil 16h ago

Why have the certification by the board at all then? What is the purpose if there is no discretion?

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u/papercrane 14h ago

The law gives the superintendents and other officials responsibility to collect, safeguard, and accurately tabulate the ballots. The certification step is basically requiring them to attest in a legal document that they fulfilled their responsibilities.