Georgia State Election Board to vote on controversial rule opposed by many local officials
The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote on a controversial measure Friday that would require local precincts to conduct hand counts for the November election and confirm the figures match machine counts before certifying election results.
The proposed rule is one of several under consideration Friday as three Trump-approved Republican members – who have made up the board's majority since May – continue to entertain a flurry of proposals to change the state's election processes in the final months before November.
The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, a nonpartisan group of more than 500 Georgia officials and staff, expressed renewed concern in a Tuesday letter about many of the last-minute proposals.
"Election officials are training thousands of poll workers daily across the state and are already working to educate the public on what to expect throughout the voting process and beyond," the group wrote. "We respectfully ask that these proposed rules, and any other petitions for rulemaking, be tabled until 2025."
The proposed hand-counting rule in particular could delay results, set fatigued employees up to fail, and "undermine the very confidence the rule’s author claims to seek," according to the election officials.
The election board members didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously, election board member Janelle King told USA TODAY her mission is "to ensure that every vote is counted accurately and every election is conducted correctly going forward."
Former President Donald Trump has publicly praised King and two of her fellow board members, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares, as "pit bulls" fighting for "victory."
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, raised his own concerns at an election-related forum Thursday, saying there are 2,400 precincts in Georgia that would need to comply with the hand-counting proposal, which he said would create delays in receiving results and jeopardize the security of the paper ballots.
"90 days before an election, you should not institute major changes to the election process," Raffensperger said. "The more moving parts you have, the more chance you have to fail."
Controversial last-minute changes
The board has already been taking heat for rules passed in August that critics fear could delay certification and cause chaos.
However, proponents of recent changes say they are designed to ensure accuracy and boost public confidence in the system.
Former Virginia Attorney General and Trump administration official Ken Cuccinelli, for example, spoke at the election board's Aug. 19 meeting in defense of a rule requiring counties to investigate even minor discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters in a precinct before certifying results.
"If more ballots show up than voters, good grief, I would think anybody would want to flag and solve that problem as soon as possible," he said.
The Georgia Democratic Party has sued the board over two rules passed in August that it fears could prevent election results from being certified on time. One rule requires counties to conduct a "reasonable inquiry" before certifying results. The other is the same rule Cuccinelli defended. The lawsuit focuses on a portion of the rule that allows local election board officials to examine election-related documentation created through running the election.
Georgia Democrats want a judge to instruct local officials that the state's certification deadlines are mandatory, even after the rules. A state judge has scheduled a trial for Oct. 1 to resolve the issue quickly.
Contributing: Erin Mansfield
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia election board considers controversial last-minute changes
