Democrats Sue Georgia Election Board Over Ballot Hand Counting Rule
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Georgia Democratic Party sued the State Election Board on Monday after three of its MAGA members approved a rule requiring poll workers to hand count all ballots, even after being tabulated by machines.
The Georgia State Election Board has been the subject of controversy for months as it has continued to pass rules that could delay election certification and results and sow doubt in the credibility of the election.
Amid 17 ongoing voting rights cases in Georgia, Democrats are suing the State Election board over a rule requiring hand counting ballots, which could cause delays in November.
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On Sept. 20, the five-member election board voted on a rule that would require three election workers to unseal every box of ballots printed from the scanner machines at a polling location and hand count them.
This new rule will require election workers to count the total number of ballots, but not which candidate received more votes.
The three extreme Republican members — who have been praised by former President Donald Trump — voted to pass it.
The DNC and Georgia Democratic Party argued that the election board has usurped the legislature’s power in passing this rule, overstepping the bounds of their role in the election process.
Also, the plaintiffs stated that the board doesn’t have the authority to pass a rule so close to an election when poll workers have already been trained and voters have begun casting ballots. They said passing last-minute rules is not “conducive to the fair, legal, and orderly conduct of primaries and elections.”
Additionally, the board violated a Georgia law that requires state agencies to provide advanced public notice during the rulemaking process, the plaintiffs argued.
For these reasons, the Democrats asked the court to invalidate the hand count rule and permanently block the board from enforcing it.
The plaintiffs also discussed the harm the rule could cause — noting that multiple studies and experts have shown that ballot scanners are much more accurate at tallying votes than hand counting.
When the rule was first being considered, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said that hand counting “introduces the opportunity for error, lost or stolen ballots, and fraud.”
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) and the Georgia Association Of Voter Registration And Election Officials have also opposed this hand counting rule.
The board also passed rules last month that require county election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” of results before certifying them and allow county officials to have access to “all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections” before certification.
The DNC and state Democratic Party challenged those rules as well, and the bench trial for that case is set to begin on Tuesday. Two Georgia Republicans also sued to block these two rules and there will be a hearing in that case on Friday.
Georgia is predicted to be a crucial swing state in the upcoming presidential election, so if results or certification are significantly delayed, that could cause massive ramifications not only for Georgia voters but also for voters across the country.
“These delays introduce opportunities for bad-faith actors to claim that fraud has affected election results—a result that would undermine public confidence in the results and in the election of Democratic candidates specifically,” the plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit.