ATLANTA– With less than three weeks to go before Election Day, the fate of new rules that could affect the certification of vote tallies in the critical swing state of Georgia is still in flux as judges wade through the lawsuits.
The state elections board, which is controlled by three Republicans Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, it has adopted several rules in recent months that mainly address the processes that take place after ballots are cast. Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, but claimed without evidence that widespread fraud cost him victory in the state.
Democratic Party Organizationslocal election officials and a group led at least a half-dozen lawsuits have been filed by a former Republican state lawmaker over the rules. Democrats, voting rights groups and some legal experts have expressed concerns that some could be used by Trump allies to delay or avoid certification or cast doubt on the results if he loses next month’s presidential election to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Early in-person voting began Tuesday and broke early voting records with 310,960 votes cast.
Here are some things you need to know about the new rules:
A new rule that a judge put on hold would require three separate poll workers to hand count the number of ballots on Election Day to ensure the number of paper ballots matches the electronic numbers on scanners, check-in computers and voting machines.
Voters in Georgia make choices on a touchscreen voting machine that prints a piece of paper with a human-readable list of the voter’s choices, as well as a QR code. This is the ballot paper that the voter puts into a scanner, which registers the votes. The manual count would be of the paper ballots – not the votes. If a scanner contains more than 750 ballots at the end of voting, the poll manager can wait to count until the next day.
Critics, including many county election officials, argued that a manual count could delay reporting of election results and place an additional burden on poll workers at the end of an already long day. They also said they did not have enough time to adequately train poll workers after the rule was implemented in late September.
The rule’s supporters argued that the counting would take additional minutes, not hours. They also noted that scanner memory cards containing voting results can be sent to central tabulation centers in each province as the hand count is completed so that reporting of results is not delayed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney Tuesday blocked the hand count before the November elections while he considers the legal merits. He said the hand count may ultimately prove to be a good policy, but it is too close to the general election to implement it now. The state election board could appeal.
In a separate ruling, McBurney said election officials should certify results within the period set by state law. That statement arose from a lawsuit by a member of the Fulton County Republican Board of Elections, who asked the judge to declare that certification was discretionary.
McBurney wrote that Georgia law does not give county election officials the authority to determine whether fraud has occurred or what to do about it, so they cannot exclude ballots from certification on that basis. If fraud or error is suspected, it may be referred to a prosecutor for prosecution or may form the basis for a post-certification election challenge.
The state election board adopted two rules related to certification in August. One provides a definition of certification that includes: requiring provincial officials to conduct a “reasonable investigation.” before results are certified, but it doesn’t specify what that means. The other includes language allowing county election officials to “examine any election-related documentation created during the conduct of the election.”
Supporters say that those rules are necessary to ensure the accuracy of vote totals before county election officials sign them. Critics fear they could be used to delay or deny certification.
McBurney has not yet made a ruling a challenge to these two rules filed by the state and national Democratic party organizations.
One provides expanded access for polling tabulation centers. Supporters say this would increase transparency, while critics fear it could lead to intimidation or interference of poll workers.
Others face public posting requirements for election-related information. For example, you require county election officials to post each day during early voting the number of people who voted and how they voted – in person or by absentee ballot.
County election boards in at least three counties — Cobb, DeKalb and Muscogee — are challenging some of the rules. Individual county election officials have also filed a lawsuit.
The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia have filed two lawsuits and joined several others. Eternal Vigilance Action, a group founded and led by former Republican state Rep. Scot Turner, also filed a lawsuit.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official, has said the last-minute nature of the rules creates confusion among voters, poll workers and voters and could undermine confidence in election results. A association of provincial election officials also asked the state administration to put on the brakes on new rules.
And last month, the office of Attorney General Chris Carr, also a Republican, warned in a memo that some rules appear to conflict with existing law.