Election Board In Battleground State Requires Counties To Hand-Count Ballots

The Georgia State Election Board voted 3-2 to approve a rule requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots cast on Election Day.

“The new hand-counting rule requires counties to count by hand the number of ballots cast at a polling place, to make sure it matches the number of ballots tallied by voting machines,” CNN stated.

Just in: The Georgia State Election Board has approved a rule to require election workers to hand count ballots on election night. The vote was 3-2. pic.twitter.com/XMu0YZFVPi

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) September 20, 2024

Per Fox News:

In a memo sent to election board members Thursday, the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr said no provision in state law allows counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level before the ballots are brought to county election superintendent for vote tallying. As a result, the memo says, the rule is “not tethered to any statute” and is “likely the precise kind of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”

The new rule, according to the Associated Press, requires that the number of paper ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same. If a scanner has more than 750 ballots inside at the end of voting, the poll manager can decide to begin the count the following day.

The board’s chair, John Fervier, a Republican, voted against the rule, saying the “overwhelming number of election officials” who reached out to him were opposed to the change.

To be clear – this will NOT result in some major upheaval or delay of results by “weeks” like critics are falsely claiming. The hand count is just going to occur alongside the machine count. And discrepancies will just be fixed, and DOCUMENTED, as the poll workers go. The rule… pic.twitter.com/jPtxG0EAys

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 20, 2024

Huge breaking news! Another win!
Help save our country at https://t.co/fyBOG08ZBBhttps://t.co/r7hgSqOzcC

— Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell) September 20, 2024

State Democrats and the Republican secretary of state’s office opposed the rule.

Critics claim the rule will delay election results in the battleground state.

WATCH:

Glad all the networks are reporting the facts. That the State Election Board’s plan is nothing more than a scheme to delay election certification.

ABC World News pic.twitter.com/z9lWPjbVsF

— Blue Georgia (@BlueATLGeorgia) September 20, 2024

CNN reports:

Carr’s office also warned the board that it might be too close to the election to make these changes – and that judges might even block these changes because of long-standing precedents that favor maintaining the status quo on the eve of elections.

“The Board runs substantial risk of intruding upon the General Assembly’s constitutional right to legislate. When such intrusion occurs, the Board rule is highly likely to be ruled invalid should it be challenged,” Elizabeth Young, a senior attorney in Carr’s office, said in the letter on Thursday, warning the board that it might be overstepping its authority.

These conclusions echo concerns raised by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has previously blasted the GOP-dominated board as a “mess.”

“We’re too close to the election,” Raffensperger, a Republican, told CNN on Thursday. “We’re 50 days out before we have our election. In fact, we’re really just three weeks before we start early voting, and it’s just too late in the cycle.”

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The reshaping of the election board in one of the most critical battleground states of 2024 highlights how some Republicans who cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results have now taken on prominent roles driving election rules and, in some areas, overseeing elections.

The board also passed a new rule giving poll-watchers access to more of the election process, including vote-counting tabulation areas.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up.

View the original article here.