Republicans say they are appealing a Georgia judge’s ruling that invalidates seven election rules

ATLANTA (AP) — National and state Republicans appealed Thursday a judge’s decision that said seven election rules recently adopted by the Georgia State Election Board apply “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

The Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party are appealing a ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox, who ruled Wednesday that the state elections board did not have the authority to adopt the rules and ordered it to follow all state and Local elections to immediately inform officials that the rules are invalid and must not be followed.

Among the rules Cox invalidated were three that had drawn much attention – one that required the number of ballots to be counted manually after polls closed and two that had to do with certifying election results .

In a statement Thursday announcing the appeal. RNC Chairman Michael Whatley accused Cox of “the worst kind of legal activism.”

“By striking down the Georgia State Election Board’s common-sense rules put in place to protect Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability and the integrity of our elections,” Whatley said. “We immediately appealed this egregious order to ensure that sensible rules apply to the election – we will not let that happen.”

The ruling was issued as part of a lawsuit brought by Eternal Vigilance Action, an organization founded and led by former Republican Scot Turner. The lawsuit argued that the state elections board exceeded its authority in adopting the rules.

“Seeing the Republican Party argue that unelected bureaucrats should have the power to make new laws is certainly a departure from traditional conservative values,” Turner wrote in a text to The Associated Press. “But we expected them to appeal and are prepared to fight to contain this administration and state power grab for as long as necessary.”

The ruling was hailed as a victory by Democrats and voting rights groups, who say the state election board has been adopting rules in recent months could be used by allies of Donald Trump to cast doubt on the results if the former president loses the presidential election to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. The latest appointments to the five-member board have been made three Republicans supported by Trump in the majority. They adopted new rules over the objections of the only Democrat on the board and the nonpartisan board chairman.

County election officials across the state — the people who run elections — have expressed concerns the flood of new rules comes into force so close to election day.

The other rules Cox called illegal and unconstitutional are those that require someone casting a mail-in ballot in person to provide a signature and photo ID; require video surveillance and recording of ballot boxes after polls close during early voting; Expand mandatory designated areas where partisan poll observers can stand at tabulation centers. and require daily public updates on the number of votes cast during early voting.

One rule the judge struck down required three different poll workers to hand-count the number of ballots on Election Day to ensure the number of paper ballots matched the electronic counts on scanners, check-in computers and voting machines.

Voters in Georgia make their choice on a touchscreen voting machine that prints a paper with a human-readable list of the voter’s choices and a QR code. The voter places this ballot into a scanner that records the votes cast. The manual count involved the paper ballots – not the votes.

Critics, including many county election officials, argued that a hand count could slow down reporting of results and put a strain on poll workers at the end of an already long day. They also said there was not enough time for proper training.

Proponents of the rule argued that the count would take additional minutes, not hours. They also noted that scanner memory cards containing the vote counts could be sent to county offices while the hand count is completed so that the transmission of results would not be slowed.

Cox wrote that the rule is “nowhere permitted by Georgia law” that “prohibits the duties of poll workers after polls close.” Hand counting is not one of them.”

Two other new rules that Cox invalidated were adopted by the State Election Board in August and relate to certification. One of them provides a definition of certification that includes: require county officials to conduct an “appropriate investigation.” before certifying the results, but it does not specify what this means. The other one includes language to allow county election officials to “review all election-related documents produced during the conduct of the election.”

Supporter argued that these rules were necessary to ensure the accuracy of vote totals before county election officials sign off on them. Critics said they could be used to delay or deny certification.