Members of the Georgia State Elections Board discuss proposals to change election rules at the State Capitol in Atlanta on Friday. (Mike Stewart/AP)
The Georgia State Elections Commission on Friday passed a rule requiring three poll workers at each polling place to hand count the votes cast on Election Day, even if they have already been counted by the ballot scanners.
The board voted 3-2 to adopt the rule, with the three Republican MAGA members – Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King – voting in favor and Chairman John Fervier and Sara Tindall Ghazal, the only Democratic member, voting against.
Under this new rule, poll workers must count the total number of ballots, but not which candidate received the most votes.
After the votes have been counted manually, poll workers compare the total with the number of ballots counted by machine to identify any discrepancies.
Shortly before the vote, Fervier expressed his opposition to the measure, saying that most election officials who had contacted him were against it.
“I think it's too close to the election. I think it's too late to train many poll workers who have already started training,” Fervier said. “I think there's a lack of resources.”
He also stated that the adoption of this rule constituted an overstepping of the body's powers.
“This body is an administrative body, not a legislative body. If the legislature had wanted this, it would have included it in the law,” Fervier said. “This body is not here to make laws. We are here to interpret laws, and I do not see any place in the law where [it mentions] “The ballots are counted by hand after they come out of the machines.”
This comment was met with thunderous applause from those present at the meeting.
One of the main criticisms of this rule is that it would delay the publication of election results and cause damage.
In a memo sent to the board on Thursday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) expressed this concern.
“In general, the adoption of any rules for conducting elections will be rejected if they are implemented as close to the election as the rules on the September 20 agenda,” Carr said.
King dismissed this fear during the meeting.
“I don't want to set a precedent that we value speed over accuracy,” King said. “We're just creating more accountability.”
Before the vote, Fervier said passing the rule would “go against the advice of our legal counsel.”
In his memo to the board, Carr explained that this manual counting rule was “not bound by any law” and therefore “probably represents exactly the kind of impermissible legislation that the feds should not be allowed to enact.”
He pointed out that the body does not have unlimited decision-making power and can only issue regulations to administer existing electoral laws.
If a board rule “interferes with the General Assembly's constitutional right to legislate,” then it is “very likely that it will be declared invalid if challenged,” Carr said.
Johnston, Jeffares and King still voted to pass the bill in the 2024 election.
Both Democrats and Republicans have already filed lawsuits against the committee for adopting rules that would delay certification, and the committee could face another lawsuit before the election over the new manual counting rule.
Then, board members decided to delay a vote on a rule that would require poll workers to hand-count ballots throughout the early voting period. That rule will be reconsidered after the November election.
The committee also postponed a vote on a rule requiring mail-in ballots to be clearly distinguishable from provisional ballots to improve ballot security, one of the rules Georgia election officials said would be extremely difficult to implement so close to the election.
This article was updated on September 23, 2024 at 11:55 a.m. to clarify that this new rule requires poll workers to count the total number of ballots, not which candidate received the most votes, and that parties can sue over the new manual counting rule before the election.
Original post, September 19
The Georgia State Elections Board will vote on 11 new rules at its meeting Friday, less than seven weeks before the November election.
In the name of election integrity, the committee has issued numerous regulations in recent months that could lead to delays in the announcement and certification of results in some counties.
Both Democrats and Republicans have filed lawsuits against the election board, challenging rules that say officials cannot certify an election until they have conducted a “reasonable investigation” of the results. Another rule says county election officials can examine all documents related to the election.
This could have implications across the country, as Georgia is expected to be a crucial swing state in the presidential race and could be one of the states that determines the election victory.
The five-member board voted 3-2 across the board to pass these rules, with three MAGA Republicans supporting them.
Ahead of the panel's meeting on Friday, the Georgia Association Of Voter Registration And Election Officials (GAVREO), which consists of more than 500 poll workers and officials from every county in the state, sent the panel a letter expressing its opposition to many of the new rules.
“We do not oppose regulations because we are lazy or because a political activist or organization demands it of us,” the GAVREO board letter states. “We oppose regulations because they are poorly written, ineffective, fail to achieve their stated goals, or directly violate state law.”
The most controversial rules on Friday's agenda concern the manual counting of ballots. One rule would require three poll workers to open each box of printed ballots from the scanners at the polling place and count them by hand. This would happen either at the end of Election Day or in the days following.
Another proposed rule sets a condition under which this process would also have to take place during early voting.
The GAVREO board stated in its letter that it opposes the manual counting rules because they “have the potential to delay results, set up overtired staff to fail, and undermine the very trust the rule's author claims to want to gain.”
These regulations are so radical that even Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has a history of voter suppression, issued a statement expressing his opposition to these regulations.
Three of the other proposed rules focus on matching the number of voters with the number of votes cast.
The most important rule requires election officials to verify that the number of absentee ballots recorded by ballot scanners matches the number of absentee voters. The rule states: “If discrepancies are identified, no further action shall be taken until the issue is resolved to the satisfaction of the returning officer.”
GAVREO explained that in most counties in Georgia, the “electoral officer” is the entire county board of elections and “the board cannot be expected to meet during one of the busiest times on Election Day.”
GAVREO also said that Georgia law requires that mail-in ballot results be announced within an hour of polls closing, which is nearly impossible if the Board of Elections must first investigate any discrepancies. And it is standard procedure to resolve any discrepancies before certification.
GAVREO also stated in its letter that many regulations should not or cannot be implemented so close to the elections. For example, a rule must be introduced that clearly distinguishes postal ballots from provisional ballots in order to improve their security.
“Balls have been designed, procured and are currently being distributed to military personnel and overseas voters,” GAVREO said. “Election officials are training thousands of poll workers across the state every day and are already working to inform the public about what to expect during the voting process and beyond.”
GAVREO asked the Board to postpone voting on the 11 proposed rules and any other future rules until 2025.
The State Election Board will meet at 9 a.m. Friday to decide the fate of these rules, as mail-in voting is already underway in some Georgia counties.
