On Friday, the Election Commission of Georgia passed a rule requiring manual counting of votes in the November elections to ensure that the results match those from the machine counting before certification.
The rule was approved by a vote of 3-2. Manual counting will only apply on election night and not during early voting.
Additionally, a proposal for manual counting during early voting was passed with a vote of 4-1 by the commission, as a member was concerned about the possibility of leaking election counting information before all results were calculated.
The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials sent a letter to the commission on Tuesday, advising against the adoption of the manual counting rule. The association consists of over five hundred Georgia officials and staff members.
The organization warned that the rule could delay results, lead to errors by tired staff during operations, and undermine the election trust sought by policymakers.
According to a report by USA Today on Thursday, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stated that the rule would cause a delay in elections for 2,400 precincts in the state, affecting the timing of election result announcements.
“You shouldn’t make significant changes to the election process within 90 days of the election,” Raffensperger said. “The more variables you change, the greater the likelihood of failure.”
Raffensperger told CNN in an interview on the same day, “We are too close to the election, it’s 50 days away. In fact, we are only three weeks away from starting early voting, and it’s already too late.”
Early voting in Georgia is set to begin on October 15. If the new rule is passed, the earliest effective date would be October 14, which is 22 days before the general election.
The Guardian reported that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office had previously informed the commission that the rule was likely illegal.
“Therefore, in the regulations supporting these proposed rules, there is no precedent allowing manual counting of votes at the precinct level before being turned over to election officials for tabulation,” the Attorney General’s office wrote in a memorandum. “Thus, these proposed rules are not bound by any regulation—thus likely the type of legislation that agencies cannot do, not allowed by law.”
Carr’s office also warned the commission that the changes might be too close to the election, making them unable to implement them—judges may even block these changes due to longstanding precedent.
Georgia’s State Election Board does not certify any election results. However, it is responsible for setting rules, guiding election administrators and local boards to certify election results, and then submitting the results to the Secretary of State and Governor. The State Election Board also investigates election irregularities.
Georgia’s State Election Board was previously led by Raffensperger. The state is a swing state and was one of the most controversial states in terms of voting results in the 2020 election.
Former President Trump questioned the election results in Georgia and had called Raffensperger, only to be rejected. President Biden won the 2020 election certification in Georgia with a lead of thousands of votes.
Subsequently, the Republican-led state legislature removed members of the board of directors of the Secretary of State.
Janelle King is one of the three Republican members of the State Election Board. She told the media before the meeting that these changes were necessary.
“Unfortunately, some bad actors, some miscalculations, some double counting have overshadowed the great work done time and time again by many of our election board offices,” King said. “So this is a very difficult position: do we maintain the status quo because it’s easier, or do we make some adjustments to do better?”