People visit an early voting location at the Smyrna Community Center in Smyrna, Georgia, on November 3, 2022, during the U.S. midterm congressional and gubernatorial elections.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
On Tuesday, a Georgia judge blocked a State Board of Elections’ new rules It would require counties to count ballots by hand on Election Day, a provision that critics say will cause delays and disruptions in reporting results in battleground states.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his decision that the rule would be implemented too close to the election and would lead to “administrative chaos” given the limited time to train poll workers.
“Pressing the pause button here does not undermine the public interest. This election season is fraught with worry; no matter how one views the fame or notoriety of January 6, the memory of January 6 has not faded,” he wrote. “Anything that adds uncertainty and confusion to the electoral process harms the public interest.”
Temporary injunction, likely to be appealed, a win for Democrats who files suit Last month, the state Board of Elections voted 3-2 in favor of the hand-counting rule. The bill was originally scheduled to take effect on October 22, two weeks before Election Day.
The rule requires election workers to count the number of ballots cast in the Nov. 5 vote (not every ballot in the ballot) and then transport the ballots to counties for counting and tabulation, raising concerns that this may be unnecessary delaying results reporting and sowing uncertainty in the election.
The bill was approved by three board members Praise from former President Donald Trumpfaced opposition from state Democrats as well as Republican secretaries of state and attorneys general.
Days after the vote, the Democratic National Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party, with support from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Court seeking to block the new rules from taking effect.
Democrats praised Tuesday’s ban.
“From the beginning, this rule was designed to delay the election results in order to cast doubt on the results, and our democracy is stronger because of this decision to stop it. We will continue to work to ensure voters can cast their ballots knowing that it will work . expressed in .
Hand counting of votes has attracted the attention of many on the right in recent years in response to unfounded accusations that voting machines were hacked, despite overwhelming evidence that hand counting is more expensive and less accurate than using voting machines.
Georgia has been one of the main focuses of Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He repeatedly praised the three board members who passed the measure, calling them “bulldogs who fought for honesty, transparency and victory.”
The three members are Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King. Johnson was appointed to the board by the state Republican Party, Jeffares was appointed by the Republican-controlled state Senate and King was appointed by the Republican-led state House of Representatives.
The two members who voted against the measure were appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the state Democratic Party.
In August, the same Georgia board members passed Other new rules This would allow county election board members to conduct “reasonable” investigations before certifying results.
Critics say it could throw the election into chaos because “reasonable investigation” is not defined and individual board members can block certification for any reason. The ruling is the subject of another Democratic-led lawsuit.
McBurney failed Trump allies again on Tuesday, Ruling County Board of Elections Georgia cannot refuse to certify the election results.
