Georgia Election Board orders hand-counting of ballots

The Georgia State Election Board voted Friday to force counties to hand-count all ballots cast on Election Day, a move critics say could significantly delay the reporting of results in the battleground state and inject chaos into the postelection period.

The new rule, which passed on a 3-2 vote, runs counter to extensive legal advice from the top election official and law enforcement officials in the state. A nonpartisan group of local election officials had also objected to the change.

The measure is the latest in a stream of right-wing election policies passed by the State Election Board over the past few months. The board has come under increasing pressure from critics concerned that it has been rewriting the rules of the game in a key swing state to favor former President Donald Trump. Last month, the board granted local officials new power over certifying the election, which opponents say could potentially disrupt the process if Trump loses in November.

Critics argue that requiring hand counting, in addition to a machine count, could introduce errors and confusion into the process and potentially disrupt the custody of ballots.

To start hand-counting on election night, poll workers would likely have to break open the seals on boxes of completed ballots, possibly exposing the ballots to fraud or loss. In previous elections, ballots remain sealed and stored securely unless a recount was ordered.

Poll workers will be required to count the total number of ballots cast, not which candidate received more votes.

The hand-counting rule was among nearly a dozen election changes under consideration Friday. The proposals included a variety of conservative policy goals like expanding access for partisan poll watchers. They come just 46 days before the election, after poll workers have been trained and ballots have been mailed to overseas voters.

Already, the election board is facing a lawsuit from Democrats over earlier attempts to change the procedures on Election Day, and the new rule could face a similar challenge.

“This is nothing more than an eleventh-hour effort by Donald Trump and his ‘pit bulls’ to slow down the counting of ballots so they can attack and undermine any result they don’t like,” Jamie Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, the attorney general’s office in Georgia took the rare step of weighing in on the proposed rules, saying they “very likely exceed the board’s statutory authority.”

Elizabeth Young, a senior assistant attorney general, characterized five specific proposals as either exceeding the board’s legal reach or as unnecessarily redundant, including the hand-counting proposal.

“There are thus no provisions in the statutes cited in support of these proposed rules that permit counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level prior to delivery to the election superintendent for tabulation,” Young wrote in a letter, which was reviewed by The New York Times. “Accordingly, these proposed rules are not tethered to any statute — and are, therefore, likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”

John Fervier, the chair of the State Election Board, echoed the guidance of the attorney general’s office prior to voting Friday, warning the members that “we’ll be going against the advice of our legal counsel by voting in the affirmative.” He also indicated that the board does not have the authority to make such a rule; such power rests solely with the Legislature.

“This board is an administrative body, it’s not a legislative body,” Fervier said. “If the Legislature had wanted this, they would have put it in statute.”

But Janelle King, one of the members who voted in favor of the new rule, argued that the board was “creating more stability in our election process” by bringing more transparency to the process and giving election officials the opportunity to ensure that the final results are accurate.

The board tabled a similar proposal requiring a hand count following each day of early voting in Georgia. King expressed concern about early results leaking during the hand count process.

Janice Johnston, who also voted for the new rule, argued it would create uniformity across the state.

“It’s just not fair to have some do it, and some don’t,” she said in an interview.

Johnston dismissed accusations that the board had partisan motivation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “I don’t think it needs a response.”

The vote came after more than 30 public comments from local election officials, democracy organizations and voters in Georgia, with the vast majority denouncing the new rule. Many argued against making changes so close to the election and warned that the new rules would erode the security of elections in the state.

Ethan Compton, an election supervisor in rural Irwin County, population 9,666, said he was “furious” as he sat in the audience and watched the board’s discussion.

“I’m thinking about how the entire world is going to have to wait for election results an extra, one, two, three, depending on how close it is, four hours,” he said.

“These rules will not help with integrity,” Compton said.

He recalled the difficulties he faced in the aftermath of the 2020 election. He contracted COVID-19 during a recount, and on Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol riot, he was escorted out of his office to his home county, where law enforcement monitored him at all hours.

“My 6-month-old was sick,” said Compton as he struggled to speak through tears. “Seeing what I put a year of blood, sweat and tears, of hard work to keep honest, being shredded devastated me.”

The Georgia State Election Board, once a bureaucratic backwater in the state election apparatus, has thrust itself into national headlines with a 3-2 right-wing majority that has aligned itself closely with rules rooted in election conspiracy theories. Trump has praised three of the board members by name at a rally in the state, calling them “pit bulls” fighting for “victory.”

Last month, the board passed a rule upending decades of settled Georgia law, allowing local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” investigation before certifying election results, a rule Democrats and election experts said could disrupt the certification process.

The board also approved an investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County, long a desire of right-wing election conspiracy theorists but far from the list of priorities of local election officials or the secretary of state.

The board will reconvene Monday, when members will consider several additional proposals.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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