Critics vowed to take the case to court, saying that the new requirement would almost surely lead to mistakes and the possibility of bringing the vote-counting process to a halt in a critical battleground state.
ATLANTA — The Georgia State Election Board voted Friday to adopt a rule requiring counties in this crucial presidential battleground to hand-count all ballots this year, potentially upending the November election by delaying the reporting of results. Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter. A pro-Trump majority has recently approved a series of electoral reforms for the state, including the hand-count requirement Monday. A string of public commenters begged them not to. Share 3856 Comments By Amy Gardner Amy Gardner has worked at The Post since 2005 and currently covers voting on its Democracy Team. She is part of the team that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. She is a 1990 University of Pennsylvania graduate and lives in Arlington, Va., with her husband, Bob. They have two sons
The board voted 3-2 to approve the measure, which would require a hand count in addition to the customary machine count in each precinct. The rule requires the hand count to occur the night of the November election or the next day. But dozens of election officials said that would be physically impossible in all but the smallest counties. Many more said Friday in public comments that it's too late in the year to implement new procedures for which their staff haven't been trained and for which they have no money. ????️ Follow Politics Follow "Military ballots have already been issued," said Ethan Compton, elections supervisor in south Georgia's Irwin County. "The election has begun. This is not the time to change the rules.". That will only lower the integrity of our elections." The hand-count requirement was just one of 11 rules set to be voted on Friday, the latest batch the State Election Board has considered in recent weeks in an effort, proponents say, to make state elections more secure and transparent. The frenzy is the handiwork of a new right-wing majority that seized control of the board in May with a declared mission of preventing fraud and other irregularities from tainting the presidential result this year.
All three supporters of former President Donald Trump, all the rules they are asking to be implemented have been championed by Georgia's most prominent advocate of the false theory that Joe Biden stole the election in 2020. A few speakers advocated for the adoption of the new rules, suggesting there had been cheating in the 2020 election and that hand-counting would bring needed transparency at a time when trust in the system is low. "Why are public servants keeping the accountability from us? " asked Mary Belle Hodges, Gwinnett County citizen resident in Atlanta's suburbs. The person who instigated the measure, Sharlene Alexander of Fayette County, spoke to the board much of the criticism is based on misinformation, because the rule requires the counting of the number of ballots to make sure the count matches machine totals-but it does not require hand tabulation of how people voted.
Critics retorted that is still a threshold too high to saddle election offices with. Most speakers warned of the many ways they believe that a hand count would upend the presidential race in Georgia electoral battleground that Biden won by fewer than 12,000 votes four years ago out of some 5 million cast. Several recommended federal court precedents call for a 90-day "quiet period" preceding elections during which it is generally considered prudent not to change rules out of fear of confusion, error, and insufficient training. Others noted that hand-counting would run into millions across the state, what with the expense of hiring and training additional staff to do the counting, which the rule requires to be done by three people per precinct. Another problem is that making poll workers touch ballots — sometimes numerous times in the event of conflicting hand counts and electronic results, which triggers a do-over — introduces a contaminating variable into what otherwise would be a carefully controlled environment for handling ballots.
Saira Draper, a Democratic member of the state legislature and election lawyer from DeKalb County, is blunt in her comments during the meeting.
It makes me wonder if members of this board are acting in good faith, Draper said. "Putting 11, maybe 12 new rules into play days before Election Day is a gift. We are setting up our counties to fail. Why do we know they are going to fail? Because they are telling you that."
Democrats have already filed a lawsuit over a rule adopted earlier this year that would permit counties to delay certification; the hearing is Oct. 1. More litigation is likely to follow.
Study after study, practice after practice, reveals that hand-counting of ballots is less reliable than machine tallies — and it can take days, weeks, or even months, depending on the size of the jurisdiction.
Most jurisdictions in the United States already hand count a sample of ballots after unofficial results have been reported to verify the election results by comparing them with machine tallies, and they do so without gumming up counting on election night.
One of the pro-board members, Janelle King, introduced an early draft of the hand-counting plan that would have required all precincts to hold the count on election night.
The board agreed to change that resolution; the version approved Friday would allow counties to begin the hand count in their central offices as late as the day after next. The rule requires three poll workers to add up each precinct's tallies separately. If their sums do not equal, they must report the difference to the local election board. The hand count would have to be completed within the week, which experts say is impossible.
The board moved a rule early this year critics say could enable county boards to delay the certification of results. The rule gives the boards the right to demand "reasonable inquiries" if they have doubts regarding the outcome of an election. It says nothing about what is reasonable and says nothing about limiting a time frame or documents a board can demand.
Under Georgia law, county boards must certify their results by the Monday following an election, but critics of the new rule say it could cause boards to misunderstand their power and therefore refuse certification, bringing the process of state-level certification to a grinding halt.
The calendar for choosing which presidential electors will gather and forward their votes to Washington is unforgiving: Interruptions can jeopardize the whole package. This year, electors are expected to meet in all 50 states on Dec. 17, a precursor to the electoral vote count in Washington on Jan. 6, 2025.
Some critics pointed out that since the hand-counting requirement was almost certain to introduce some degree of error into the tabulation process, it might give county boards a basis on which to launch inquiries and thereby delay certification. Some even asked whether the two rules together may constitute willful sabotage of state elections.
Requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots after the close of polls will do nothing more than provide exhausted patriots with an opportunity to undermine public confidence through an honest mistake," said Joseph Kirk, elections chief in Bartow County, northwest of Atlanta.
The state office of Attorney General Chris Carr, (R), weighed in Thursday with a formal analysis of the proposal, saying state law forbids the hand-counting of ballots at the precinct level.
The board's chairman, John Ferrier, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), voted against the proposal and said he thinks the rule puts the board in legal jeopardy.
If the legislature wanted this, they would have put it in statute, he said. This board is not here to make law. We're here to interpret the law, and I don't see anywhere in the statute where we're interpreting the hand counting of ballots after they come out of the machine.
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