ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp has already defied President Donald Trump's calls to illegally overturn Georgia's election results. Now he and other Republican leaders are shooting down an effort by pro-Trump legislators to demand a special session to brazenly award Georgia's 16 electoral votes to the GOP.
The governor and other Republican leaders first ruled out a special session to help Trump undo Joe Biden's victory on Nov. 10, and he rejected the president's extraordinary personal plea to intervene in the election results on Saturday.
But Kemp elaborated on his stance late Sunday after four Republican state senators — Brandon Beach, Greg Dolezal, William Ligon and Burt Jones — drafted a petition seeking an emergency special session because of "systemic failures" in the election system.
State elections officials have said there is no widespread evidence of fraud and Georgia courts have thrown out several complaints seeking to block the certification of the vote. But Trump's false narrative of a "stolen" election has seeped deeply into the Georgia GOP and sparked a bitter internal feud.
The petition circulating over the weekend seeks to allow the Republican-controlled Legislature to "take back the power to appoint electors." Jones, one of the organizers, said "untrustworthy" election results compelled the demand.
"It is time for our legislative body to do its job," he said.
Kemp and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who acknowledged Joe Biden's victory on CNN on Sunday, issued a lengthy statement detailing that a special session is "not an option that is allowed under state or federal law" — a lengthier way of saying it was illegal.
In the 1960s, the General Assembly decided that Georgia's presidential electors would be determined by the winner of the state's popular vote. Under Georgia law, the Legislature can only outline a new method of choosing electors if the timing of the vote was shifted from the date set in federal law.
Besides, the two Republicans said, any attempt to retroactively change that process for the Nov. 3 election "would be unconstitutional and immediately enjoined by the courts, resulting in a long legal dispute and no short-term resolution."
The lawmakers don't necessarily need the governor to take action to summon them back to Atlanta. They could call a special session on their own, but only if 60% of members in both chambers agree to it in writing. That won't happen, given that Democrats control more than 40% of the state House.
Kemp has come under extraordinary pressure from Trump to undo Biden's narrow victory in the state, which is expected to be re-certified on Monday after a second recount. At the president's rally in Valdosta, a crowd of thousands booed Kemp as Trump criticized his former ally for refusing to take the illegal step.
The president also openly invited U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a loyalist who heads Trump's recount effort, to mount a primary challenge against Kemp in 2022. And he praised the four senators circulating the petition by name.
On Sunday, Duncan drew Trump's wrath after he called the election "fair" and said that the president "did not win Georgia."
"On January 20th, Joe Biden is going to be sworn in as the 46th president. And the Constitution is still in place," Duncan said on CNN's "New Day." "This is still America."
Trump lashed out at both Republicans on Sunday, calling Kemp a "so-called" governor and Duncan his "puppet" for refusing to reverse his election defeat.
Kemp and Duncan, meanwhile, had an alternative route for those pushing false claims that Trump "rigged" the election.
"The judicial system remains the only viable — and quickest — option in disputing the results of the November 3rd election in Georgia," wrote the two.
Other legal complaints from pro-Trump forces have met the judicial equivalent of a buzzsaw from the court system. And over the weekend, Georgia attorneys filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by former Trump attorney Sidney Powell that sought to reverse Biden's victory.
"Much like the mythological kraken monster after which plaintiffs have named this lawsuit," it read, "their claims of election fraud and malfeasance belong more to the kraken's realm of mythos than they do to reality."
