Republican-led group challenges Georgia's new hand-count ballot rule

A Republican-led group, Eternal Vigilance Action, is contesting Georgia's recent mandate requiring poll workers to hand-count the total number of ballots. This new rule was passed by a majority of the State Election Board, which consists of three Republican members who have received praise from former President Donald Trump.

The new hand-count rule has raised alarms among Democrats and voting rights advocates, who fear it could create confusion and undermine public confidence in the election results, especially if Trump loses to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

The US presidential election is set on November 5.

The group founded by former state Representative Scot Turner, Eternal Vigilance Action, amended its existing lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge the new rule, adopted by the board last Friday.

The group had already been suing the board over previous rules related to vote certification—an important process for finalising election results. One of these earlier rules allows for an undefined “reasonable enquiry” before county election officials certify results, while another permits officials to review all election-related documents generated during elections, reported the news agency Associated Press (AP).

Turner’s lawsuit is scheduled for a hearing on October 4 before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox. The group is requesting that Cox either overturn the new rules or pause their implementation until after the November presidential election.

In a telephone interview, Turner explained that his lawsuit is rooted in constitutional principles.

“They are not an elected body. They are not accountable to voters; therefore, they should not have lawmaking authority,” he said regarding the State Election Board, reported AP.

The new counting rule stipulates that three separate poll workers must count the total number of ballots at each polling place until all three counts agree. If a scanner holds more than 750 ballots at the end of voting, the poll manager may decide to begin counting the next day.

Voters in Georgia make selections using a touchscreen voting machine, which produces a paper ballot that includes a human-readable list of choices as well as a QR code for vote tallying. Proponents of the new rule argue that it is essential for ensuring that the number of physical ballots matches the totals recorded by scanners, check-in computers, and voting machines. The three workers must count the ballots in groups of 50, with the poll manager responsible for explaining and resolving any discrepancies while documenting them.

In a memo issued before the election board voted on the new rule, Attorney General Chris Carr’s office stated that the rule is “not tethered to any statute” and could be considered “impermissible legislation.” The memo warned that any rule exceeding the board’s authority is unlikely to withstand legal scrutiny.

Turner sees his lawsuit as a way to present Carr's arguments to a judge. His amended lawsuit also adds challenges to rules requiring daily public updates on early voting and potentially allowing more partisan poll watchers to observe the vote tabulation process.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and county election officials had cautioned against the new rule, expressing concerns that it could delay the reporting of election night totals and undermine the chain of custody of ballots. However, they noted that results would not be delayed if poll workers sent the memory cards recording the votes to the central tabulation location before finishing the manual count.

Additionally, a lawsuit from state and national Democratic groups is contesting the two certification rules, with a judge setting a Tuesday bench trial for that case. The State Election Board has faced criticism in recent months as it considers new rules, many of which have been proposed by Trump allies and are viewed as potential threats to public confidence in election integrity.

“They are providing bonfire material for conspiracy theorists to attack the legitimacy of elections based on the complaints of a very noisy minority of Republican voters,” Turner stated.