Democrats will file lawsuit to challenge Georgia elections board rule requiring hand-count of ballots • Georgia Recorder

National and state Democrats plan to file a lawsuit on behalf of local election officials challenging a controversial new rule that requires poll workers to hand-count ballots on Election Day.

The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia will challenge with support from the Harris campaign adopted a rule This month was enforced by three members of the state’s election board who former President Donald Trump said were “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

The new rule requires three poll workers to sort ballots into piles of 50 and count each ballot to determine whether the hand count accurately matches the total number of ballots scanned at each polling place on Election Day.

The complaint is filed on behalf of election officials in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties in Fulton County.

The new rule was passed just over a week ago over the objections of Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans. Carr warned at the time that the panel’s actions were likely to exceed the panel’s authority.

Others warned that the new rule would lead to chaos and delays in announcing the results of the Nov. 5 presidential election in the swing state.

The lawsuit notes the concerns raised at the time and argues that the new rule conflicts with state election code and “violates fundamental limitations on agencies designed to avoid the very scenario at hand – an unelected body unilaterally making significant changes to the election without notice.” Law makes or “declaration,” says the lawsuit, which was obtained by the Georgia Recorder.

“To protect the sanctity of state law and prevent election night chaos, this court should declare that the hand counting rule exceeds SEB’s statutory authority and prohibit this rule from taking effect,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit asks the court to invalidate the rule.

“While Donald Trump is making up facts to sow doubt about our elections, his MAGA allies in Georgia have passed a new rule just weeks before Election Day that will hamper the vote-counting process so they can complain if voters Trump in the election,” Quentin Fulks, deputy campaign manager for the Harris-Walz campaign, said in a statement.