Fulton judge rejects Georgia Board of Elections hand-counting rule challenged by Cobb County. • Georgia Recorder

A Fulton County judge issued a ruling Tuesday evening rejecting the Georgia State Election Board’s new hand-counting rule from taking effect on the night of Georgia’s general election.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney issued the ruling temporarily blocking the Georgia Board of Elections’ new rule, which was challenged in a lawsuit by the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, which argued it allowed poll workers to do so during the The 2024 election would impose burdensome new rules in a closely contested presidential race.

McBurney wrote in his court order that the election board’s approval of the hand-counting rule came too late in this year’s election season to give local poll workers time to comply with the new procedures for the November election. The injunction will remain in effect until McBurney makes a final decision on the case at a date to be determined in accordance with McBurney’s order.

The new state rule, which the attorney general said could be invalid, requires three poll workers to hand-count every ballot cast on Election Day and verify that their count matches the machine-calculated totals.

McBurney wrote that on paper the hand-counting rule appears consistent with the Board of Elections’ mission to ensure fair, lawful and orderly elections, but its timing complicates the election process in a way that is not in the public interest.

“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 consistent training and that allows our paper ballots – the only tangible evidence of who voted.” Who – after a busy election day, being touched multiple times by multiple people before being safely transported to the official tabulation center does nothing to reduce tension or increase public confidence in this election,” McBurney said in Tuesday’s order.

Hand count order – signed

Lawyers for the State Election Board and the Cobb Election Board debated the hand-counting rule before McBurney on Tuesday during a hearing on the plaintiff’s emergency motions seeking to block the rule from taking effect this year. The Cobb County Board of Elections is also asking McBurney to repeal several other rules the state board of elections adopted in recent weeks.

The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party of Georgia and several local election officials in Georgia also filed petitions challenging the new vote counting rule.

“This labor-intensive process takes place either late on the night of Election Day in precincts across the state (with anxious and agitated observers) or in the days that follow in election offices unable to handle the many tasks they must complete along the way. to add one more. “Time,” says the plaintiffs’ emergency motion. “The end result: tired, undertrained poll workers sifting through millions of ballots under enormous time pressure with little guidance and no oversight.”

State and national Republican political organizations have defended the implementation of election rules so close to an election, saying they are necessary steps to restore public confidence in elections following Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia acts.

McBurney also ruled Tuesday that county election board members had an obligation to certify election results promptly and without delay, in another lawsuit challenging rule changes by the Georgia State Board of Elections.

On Wednesday, Fulton Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. will hold an afternoon hearing on two separate election lawsuits, including several state election rules that are also being challenged in court by the Cobb Election Board.