Georgia State Election Board Mandates All Ballots Must Be Hand Counted, Will the Courts Act?

Just three weeks before early voting begins in the state the Georgia State Election Board has ruled 3-2 that all ballots must be counted by hand. All three of the MAGA members of the board, whom Trump has praised, voted for the measure with the lone Democrat and Independent members dissenting. But vote counting procedures cannot legally be changed this close to the election, according to Georgia’s Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, setting up what will likely be a heated battle in the Georgia courts. The hand count, should it be allowed to proceed, will not tally the votes cast for each candidate, but would only report the total number of ballots cast – likely an effort to lend credence to conspiracy theories that ballot stuffing occurred in the 2020 election. In any case, many believe that this mandate is not about insuring an accurate count but only about delaying the results of the election and getting the matter into the court system, where Trump believes he has the advantage, particularly if it ends up before his tainted Supreme Court:

CNN

“Allies of former President Donald Trump who control the Georgia State Election Board approved a controversial new rule Friday requiring counties to hand-count the number of ballots cast at polling places on Election Day, despite bipartisan objections from election officials and poll workers.

The vote was 3-2, with the three Trump allies supporting the move, and a Democratic and independent GOP-appointed member of the board strongly opposing it, calling it an added step that could delay the results of the presidential election in the battleground state.

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. The hand-counters won’t be tallying how many votes each candidate received — that’s what the machines do.

The office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican, previously warned the GOP-run board that this move would likely be unlawful because state laws don’t allow local election workers to hand-count ballots before the votes are officially counted.

“These proposed rules are not tethered to any statute — and are, therefore, likely the precise type of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do,” his office wrote.

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.“

But Trump’s sycophants are likely only too happy to have the measure challenged and brought before the courts because they are acting on behalf of a candidate that has proven time and again that he will litigate any matter, regardless of the ridiculousness of his position or likelihood of ultimate success. As former Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams explains below, the purpose of the new statute is not to ensure an accurate count, but to delay the announcement of election results and cast doubt on the entire process:

The Georgia State Election Board approved a new rule today requiring counties to hand-count ballots at polling places on Election Day. 

Speaking with @LukeRussert at our event in Chicago in August, @staceyabrams warned about the added steps that could delay the results of the… pic.twitter.com/Sk9zdCIVE0

— MSNBC LIVE (@msnbcevents) September 20, 2024

The best case scenario in resolving this issue would be if the Georgia courts swiftly rule on its illegality and the guaranteed Trumpian appeals are not taken up by the higher courts.

But given Trump’s talent for delaying decisions by the courts, it may be that the election board has already made an election night reporting of the results impossible – and a post election brouhaha that Trump can exploit inevitable.