A new election rule in Georgia that would require ballots on election night be hand counted has been blocked by a state judge and will not take effect before Nov. 5.
Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney said “the public interest is not disserved by pressing pause.”
His eight-page ruling went on to note how “this election season is fraught” and “memories of January 6 have not faded away, regardless of one’s view of that date’s fame or infamy.”
He said the new rule would cause “administrative chaos” given the limited time left to instruct poll workers.
"Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public,” McBurney wrote.
The rule, passed by the Republican State Election Board, was set to go into effect Oct. 22, just two weeks before the election, and after early voting in the state is underway.
Under the rule, three poll workers at each facility would have been required to count the physical ballots – not votes – “separately” and “independently” in stacks of 50 until all three counts matched. The hand count would be completed on election night unless a scanner had more than 750 ballots by the end of voting, at which point a poll manager could push counting to the next day.
Election officials and poll workers vocally objected to the change, warning that hand-counting ballots is overly burdensome and prone to error. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) has called the rule “misguided” and suggested it would delay the reporting of election results.
Additionally, the state would have little time to train poll workers under the new guidance. During a bench trial over the matter Tuesday, a lawyer for the Cobb County Board of Elections told McBurney that 444 county poll officers would have to be trained to comply with the new rule. (The Hill)
Democrats, who sued days after the State Election Board voted in favor of the rule last month, celebrated Tuesday's injunction.
“From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it," said a joint statement issued by Harris principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, DNC acting co-director Monica Guardiola and Rep. Nikema Williams, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
Read Judge McBurney’s order halting the hand count rule ahead of the 2024 election here: https://t.co/QlhlUQNs1X
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) October 16, 2024