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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Judge pauses rule that would require Georgia counties to hand-count
ballots
By Sara Murray, Devan Cole and Jason Morris, CNN
Updated:
10:46 AM EDT, Wed October 16, 2024
Source: CNN
A judge in Georgia has paused a that would have required officials to
hand-count the number of ballots cast at each polling place,
criticizing state election officials for approving it so close to
Election Day.
“No training has been administered (let alone developed), no
protocols for handling write-in ballots … have been issued, and no
allowances have been made in any county’s election budget for
additional personnel and other expenses required to implement the Hand
Count Rule,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote
in his order Tuesday.
“The administrative chaos that will – not may – ensue is entirely
inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the
SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly.”
The new hand-counting rule – which had been set to take effect
October 22 – would require 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, however,
wouldn’t be tallying how many votes each candidate received, as
that’s what the machines do.
Democrats cheered the ruling Tuesday evening. “From the beginning,
this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the
outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block
it. We will continue fighting to ensure that voters can cast their
ballot knowing it will count,” the Harris campaign, Democratic
National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia said in a joint
statement.
The hand-count rule is the subject of and a separate hearing on the
matter is set for Wednesday. Passed by the Donald Trump-backed
Republican majority on the state election board, the rule would require
officials at a polling place to match the number of ballots tallied by
voting machines with a hand-count of the number of ballots cast.
The measure has drawn bipartisan criticism, in part because the board
forged ahead with it so close to Election Day.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has noted
the state took several steps to speed up the reporting of results in
Georgia this year. He has said the hand-count rule could delay the
reporting of results, foster an atmosphere for misinformation and
present chain of custody issues for ballots.
The rule, McBurney wrote in his order, “is too much, too late.”
“This election season is fraught; memories of January 6 have not
faded away, regardless of one’s view of that date’s fame or infamy.
Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process
disserves the public,” the judge wrote, adding that while the rule
appears on paper to be an extra human check on the accuracy of the
election, its last-minute passage “does not contribute to lessening
the tension or boosting the confidence of the public for this
election.”
Janelle King, a Republican board member, criticized the ruling.
“I am deeply disappointed for the people of Georgia,” King said in
a statement. “However, sometimes the victory lies in the public
knowing that the State Election Board is paying close attention to our
election process.”
McBurney is overseeing a number of high-profile cases related to
Georgia’s election. The judge is considering a separate rule passed
by the board in August that requires local election officials to
conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before
certifying them – a mandate that Democrats say could give county
election officials broad authority to delay or decline altogether their
certification of the results “in a hunt for purported election
irregularities.”
And on Monday, he ruled that local election officials have “a
mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results” in the days
following the election – dealing a blow to an effort by conservatives
in to gain the legal right to reject results based on a suspicion of
fraud or abuse.
This story has been updated with additional details.
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