Georgia Election Board Passes Rule Requiring Poll Workers to Hand Count Ballots

The Georgia State Election Board passed a rule on Friday that would require three election workers at every polling place to hand count ballots cast on Election Day, even after they’ve already been counted by ballot scanners. 

The board voted 3-2 to pass the rule with the three MAGA Republican members — Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King — voting in support of it and Chair John Fervier and Sara Tindall Ghazal, the sole Democratic member, voting against it. 

This new rule will require election workers to count the total number of ballots, but not which candidate received more votes.

After the hand count is complete, poll workers then compare that total to the number of ballots counted by the machines and then find any discrepancies that may have occurred.

Right before the vote occurred, Fervier expressed his opposition to it, saying that most of the election officials who have reached out to him are opposed to this rule.

“I do think it’s too close to the election. I think that it’s too late to train a lot of poll workers that have already started their training processes,” Fervier said. “I think there’s a lack of resources.” 

He also explained that passing this rule oversteps the board’s authority.

“This board is an administrative body, not a legislative body. If the legislature had wanted this, they would have put it in the statute,” Fervier said. “This board is not here to make law. We’re here to interpret law, and I don’t see any place in statute, where [it mentions] hand counting the ballots after they come out of the machines.”

This comment was met with thundering applause from audience members at the meeting.

One of the main criticisms of the rule is how much it would delay election results and the harm that would cause.

In a memo sent to the board on Thursday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) expressed this concern.

“As a general matter, the passage of any rules concerning the conduct of elections are disfavored when implemented as close to an election as the rules on the September 20 agenda,” Carr said.

King dismissed this concern during the meeting.

 “What I don’t want to do is set a precedent that we are okay with speed over accuracy,” King said. “What we’re doing is creating more accountability.”

Before the vote, Fervier said that passing this rule would “be going against the advice of our legal counsel.”

In his memo to the board, Carr explained that this hand-counting rule is not “tethered to any statute,” so it’s “likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”

He noted that the board doesn’t have unlimited rule-making power, stating that they can only pass rules regarding the administration of existing election laws.

If a board rule is “intruding upon the General Assembly’s constitutional right to legislate,” then it’s “highly likely to be ruled invalid should it be challenged,” Carr said.

Johnston, Jeffares and King voted to pass it anyway for the 2024 election.

The board has already been sued by both Democrats and Republicans for rules passed that would delay certification, and they could get sued again over the new hand-counting rule before the election.

Then, the election board members decided to table a vote on a rule that would require poll workers to hand count ballots throughout the early voting period as well. That rule will be reconsidered after the November election.

The board also delayed the vote on a rule that would require absentee ballots to be marked distinctly from provisional ballots to improve the security of the ballots. This was one of the rules that Georgia election officials said was extremely difficult to implement this close to the election.

This story was updated at 11:55 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2024, to clarify that this new rule will require election workers to count the total number of ballots, but not which candidate received more votes, and that parties can sue over the new hand-counting rule before the election.

Original post, Sept. 19

The Georgia State Election Board will vote on 11 new rules at its Friday meeting, with less than seven weeks until the November election.

The board has passed many rules over the past couple of months in the name of election integrity that could delay results and certification in some counties. 

Both Democrats and Republicans have filed lawsuits against the election board, challenging rules stating officials can only certify an election after conducting a “reasonable inquiry” into the results and another allowing county election members to examine all election-related documents.

This may impact the entire country since Georgia is expected to be a crucial swing state in the presidential race and could be one of the states that determines who wins.

The five-member board has consistently voted 3-2 to pass these rules, with the three MAGA Republicans supporting them. 

Ahead of the board’s Friday meeting, the Georgia Association Of Voter Registration And Election Officials (GAVREO), which is composed of over 500 county election workers and officials across the state, sent a letter to the board expressing its opposition to many of the new rules.

“We do not oppose rules because we are lazy or because a political operative or organization wants us to,” GAVREO’s executive board said in the letter. “We oppose rules because they are poorly written, inefficient, would not accomplish their stated goals, or go directly against state law.”

The most controversial rules on Friday’s agenda involve hand-counting ballots. One rule 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 would occur either at the end of Election Day or in the following days.

Another proposed rule outlines a condition in which this process would have to occur during the early voting period, too.

GAVREO’s Executive Board said in its letter that they oppose the hand counting rules because of their “potential to delay results; set fatigued employees up for failure; and undermine the very confidence the rule’s author claims to seek.”

These rules are so extreme that even Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who has a history of suppressing votes, issued a statement saying he opposed them.

Three of the other proposed rules focus on the reconciliation of the number of voters and the number of votes cast.

The main one would mandate election officials to verify that the number of absentee ballots recorded on the ballot scanners matches the number of absentee voters. The rule states “if any discrepancies are found, no further action shall be taken until the issue is resolved to the satisfaction of the election superintendent.”

GAVREO explained that in most Georgia counties, the “election superintendent” is the county’s full election board, which “cannot be expected to meet during one of the busiest times on Election Day.”

Also, GAVREO said that Georgia law requires absentee results to be reported within an hour of the polls closing, and that will be nearly impossible if the election board has to investigate any discrepancies first. Also, it is standard procedure for any discrepancies to be mitigated before certification.

In its letter, GAVREO also said many of the rules should not or cannot be implemented so close to the election, including one that would require absentee ballots to be marked distinctly from provisional ballots to improve the security of the ballots.

“Ballots have been designed, procured, and are presently being issued to military and overseas voters,” GAVREO said. “Election officials are training thousands of poll workers daily across the state and are already working to educate the public on what to expect throughout the voting process and beyond.”

GAVREO asked the board to delay votes on the 11 proposed rules and any other future rules until 2025. 

The State Election Board will meet at 9 a.m. on Friday and decide the fate of these rules as mail-in voting is already underway in some Georgia counties.