Georgia judge blocks election rule requiring ballots to be counted by hand

After voters in Georgia headed to the polls on Tuesday for the state’s first day of early voting, a judge barred election officials from implementing a controversial new rule requiring a hand count of ballots after polls close on Nov. 5 would.

The Hand counting rule and others were passed by the five-member state election committee in September in a 3-2 voteenforced by a trio of supporters of former President Donald Trump. The rule requires county election officials and poll workers to unseal ballot boxes and hand-count ballots one at a time to ensure the counts match machine-counted ballots.

Local and national officials filed several lawsuits, and the new rules drew criticism from members of both parties, including Georgia’s Republican attorney general and secretary of state.

The Cobb County Board of Elections asked a judge to overturn the new rules, which also include other new requirements for voting Ballot counting process.

Judge Robert McBurney wrote Tuesday that “the hand counting rule is too much, too late.” McBurney wrote that with Election Day approaching, there are “no guidelines or training tools for implementing” the rule.

“This election season is tense; The memories of January 6th have not faded, regardless of how one judges the fame or infamy of that date. Anything that brings uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process benefits the public,” McBurney added.

The Cobb County Board of Supervisors argued in its complaint that the new rules would “significantly alter Georgia’s election procedures on the eve” of the election. During a hearing Tuesday, an attorney for the board requested a temporary restraining order, saying it was too late to adequately adjust staffing and training. He added that such rules would normally be implemented in years without major elections.

Lawyers arguing for the Cobb County board pointed to a Sept. 19 memorandum in which Georgia’s attorney general concluded that changing the rules so close to an election “would lead to voter confusion and consequential voter confusion.” “could lead to incentives to stay away from the elections.”

An attorney representing the state board told McBurney that and other concerns were “hypothetical, in addition to conjecture, in addition to speculation.”

The state executive argued on Tuesday that it would not be difficult to prepare election workers for the new rules.

Democrats were quick to praise the decision Tuesday.

“From the beginning, this rule was an attempt to delay the election results in order to sow doubt about the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it. “We will continue to fight to ensure voters can cast their vote knowing it counts,” said Quentin Fulks, Vice President Kamala Harris’ principal deputy campaign manager, Monica Guardiola, co-executive director of the Democratic National Committee, and Nikema Williams , chairwoman of the Georgia Democratic Party, in a joint statement.

It’s a busy week of election cases for McBurney, who issued a ruling Monday concluding that election officials are required under Georgia law to confirm election results even if they have concerns about fraud. He wrote that when such concerns arise, their job is to escalate those concerns to law enforcement.

McBurney, who chaired the special Georgia grand jury that voted in 2023 to indict Trump for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 results, also has oversight A similar case has been filed by the Democratic parties at the national and state levels question the rules.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.