A rule was passed last month by the State Election Board ( SEB ) to make sure the number of physical ballots counted matches the precinct level’s Election Day machine count total. However, a Georgia judge blocked the law on Tuesday despite acknowledging it would only offer” assurance that the system counts meet reality” after Democrats launched a lawfare campaign.
Rule 183-1-12-. According to Article 12( a )( 5 ),” three sworn precinct poll officers” shall manually count the “number of ballots removed from the scanner… until each of the three poll officers has separately counted each of the ballots.” If the machine count total does not fit the hand count total,” the poll manager may quickly determine the reason for the inconsistency, right the inconsistency, if possible, and entirely document the inconsistency or problem along with any preventative measures taken”.
Judge Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court himself acknowledged that the rule “may be”” intelligent election policy,” but that “its ] application is currently very incorrect.
” On papers, the Hand Count Rule— if correctly promulgated — appears consistent with the SEB’s goal of ensuring honest, legitimate, and ordered elections. It is, at bottom, just a test of vote counts, a mortal eye assurance that the machine counts match reality”, McBurney ruled.
The judge, however, argued in his Tuesday selection that the concept was very close to an election and that there was not enough time to properly train vote workers.
The Georgia SEB approved a number of election regulations in September, including the hand matter concept. The elections table of Cobb County requested McBurney to nullify six of the state club’s laws earlier this month. They also requested that the judge specifically cease the use of the law, which requires counties to manually check system vote totals, despite state law’s already enforcing a similar reconciliation process, stating that county officials” evaluate the registration figure with the certificates returned by the poll officers showing the number of people who voted in each corridor or the number of ballots cast.”
According to McBurney, the Democratic National Committee and the Democrat Party of Georgia, as well as board members from four different Georgia county election boards, “also filed an emergency motion” for the same remedy as the Hand Count Rule.”
The court will consider the merit of the complaints while McBurney’s ruling forbids the SEB from implementing the rule this close to Election Day.  ,
McBurney feared that the new election would be “inefficient and non-uniform by the introduction of an entirely new process,” despite the fact that some Georgia counties have already done so by hand. He further worried about the prospect of” thousands of poll workers handling, sorting, and counting actual ballots” in this way.
Since Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger claimed his office would be unable to “provide meaningful training” on the rule, McBurney expressed concern that as of Tuesday,” there are no guidelines or training tools for the implementation of the Hand Count Rule” and that no guidance is “forthcoming.” Raffensperger’s office told counties it would do nothing until the court weighed in, according to a memo obtained by The Federalist, rather than instructing counties on the rule in the 25 days since it was passed. Both Raffensperger’s office as well as the state’s attorney general opposed the rule change. Janelle King, a SEB member, previously told The Federalist that she did n’t “understand why there are complaints about the rule change being too close to the election while simultaneously putting off training.”
King told The Federalist she is “disappointed for the people of Georgia” following McBurney’s ruling.
The judge is put in a difficult position, forcing them to rule on hypothetical scenarios, King said,” when the Attorney General and Secretary of State express opinions that directly contradict our rules.” ” The people of Georgia have left me a deep regret,” she said. However, knowing that the State Election Board is scrutinizing our election process can sometimes win.
Salleigh Grubbs, the chairwoman of the Cobb County Republican party, claimed Salleigh Grubbs ‘ statement to The Federalist “demonstrates that the left has created a narrative over common sense rules in order to prevent transparency in… elections.”
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The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman is a correspondent for elections. With a degree in International Political Economy, Brianna received her degree from Fordham University. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2