Photo: Oxana Melis / Unsplash
A Georgia judge blocked a new election rule that would have required counties to hand-count ballots after polls close on election night, citing potential delays and confusion in the state’s election process.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney made the decision after the State Election Board (SEB) voted for the rule and six others that mostly concern the process after ballots are cast.
In the eight-page ruling, McBurney said that although the board believes “the hand count rule is smart election policy—and it may be right,” the “timing of its passage makes implementation now quite wrong.”
“This election season is fraught; memories of Jan. 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,” he added.
This decision was made within the context of wider legal and political conflicts over election procedures in Georgia, highlighting the ongoing tensions and legal disputes surrounding elections in this crucial battleground state.
Last month, SEB officials passed the hand-count regulation that would have necessitated numerous Georgia poll workers to open ballot boxes and manually tally the votes, confirming that the totals align with the counts generated by machines and addressing any inconsistencies.
However, the rule’s implementation was heavily criticized for being close to the election date, requiring insufficient training for poll workers, and potentially causing administrative chaos.
In the wake of the McBurney decision, Judge Thomas Cox of the Fulton County Superior Court struck down multiple new election regulations — including the hand-count rule — stating that they were “unconstitutional” and contravened state laws.
Two Georgia voters, including former state Rep. Scot Turner, with the election policy advocacy group Eternal Vigilance Action, reportedly challenged the SEB’s rule in a filing last month, arguing that it “risks destabilizing Georgia’s voting, vote counting, and vote certification process.”
Turner said in a post on X that the ruling “is a victory for the Constitution and the principle of separation of powers.”
“Every conservative should see this as a win and significant pushback on an unelected board making law,” he wrote.
Cox struck down six more rules that would have required local officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, granted county election board members access to all election-related documentation created during the election, demanded video surveillance and recording of authorized drop boxes after the polls close, and added new requirements for the county board of registrars in reporting absentee ballot information, according to USA Today.
Following the ruling, the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party on Thursday filed an appeal.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley accused Cox of “the very worst of judicial activism,” according to The Associated Press.
“By overturning the Georgia State Election Board’s commonsense rules passed to safeguard Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with the Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability, and the integrity of our elections,” Whatley said. “We have immediately appealed this egregious order to ensure commonsense rules are in place for the election — we will not let this stand.”
Written by Brandon Drey
