WASHINGTON, D.C.—The following is a statement from Democracy Defenders Action Executive Chair Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.) regarding Georgia Supreme Court Justice Sarah Warren’s failure to commit to accepting the results of the May 19 election where she is on the ballot:

“The integrity of our elections is not a partisan issue — it is the foundation of our republic. And right now, that foundation is under direct threat in Georgia.

“We are witnessing a deeply troubling pattern: candidates who lose elections reaching for legally dubious procedural gambits to void the will of the voters. We saw it in North Carolina's 2024 Supreme Court race. Now, one of Georgia's judicial candidates may do the same — potentially engineering a manufactured vacancy to hand Governor Kemp an appointment that Georgia voters never authorized.

“Let's call this gambit, should it occur, what it is: an attempt to nullify a free and fair election. It would deprive Georgians of their sacred right to have their votes counted and their voices heard. And it would corrode the public confidence in democratic institutions that is essential to self-governance.

“Enough. Democracy Defenders Action is calling on every candidate in the May 19 Georgia Supreme Court election — and the incumbents above all — to make an unambiguous commitment: accept the results. If you do not win, serve the remainder of your term. Do not pretend the law allows you to hand this decision to the governor and disenfranchise millions of Georgia voters.

“History is watching. There is no neutral ground here.”

Additional background:

• Justice Sarah Warren of the Georgia Supreme Court has not committed to accepting the results of the state’s upcoming May 19 Supreme Court election.

• A loophole in Georgia election law opens the possibility that an incumbent justice could lose an election and then nullify the result by resigning and allowing the governor to appoint a replacement – which most believe would be unlawful.

• Justice Blackwell successfully executed a similar move in 2020, but only by announcing his retirement before candidate qualification began for an election. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the Secretary of State’s cancellation of Blackwell’s election in Barrow v. Raffensperger.

• The other incumbent facing a challenge, Charlie Bethel, committed to serve out the remainder of his term, even if he lost.

• Warren, on the other hand, gave no comment and refused to respond to written questions from Bolts magazine when it wrote about this loophole.

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