Georgia Judge Rules Hand Counting Election Day Votes Is “Too Much.”

A judge in Georgia has blocked election officials from enacting a rule that would require election workers to hand-count ballots after polls close on Nov. 5.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his Tuesday order that “the hand-counting rule is too much, too late.” The new rule was passed by the Georgia State Election Board in September with a 3-2 vote, supported by three supporters former President Donald Trump. It would have required election officials and poll workers to count ballots by hand after the machine counts were registered.

“This election season is tense; Memories of January 6th [2021] have not disappeared regardless of one’s assessment of the fame or infamy of that date,” McBurney wrote in his order. “Anything that brings uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process benefits the public.”

The judge added that the hand counting rule “appears on paper… to be consistent with the rule [State Election Board’s] The task is to ensure fair, lawful and orderly elections.

But he added that a “rule that establishes a new and substantive role on the eve of the election for more than 7,500 poll workers who have not received formal, coherent or uniform training and that allows our paper ballots…” “After a busy election day being handled multiple times by multiple people before being safely transported to the official tabulation center does nothing to ease tension or increase public confidence in this election.”

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.