GA Judge Blocks Rule Meant To Ensure Accurate Ballot Counts
The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) recently passed a rule aimed at ensuring that the count of physical ballots matches the totals from Election Day machines at precincts. However, a Georgia judge, Robert McBurney, blocked the implementation of this rule just before the election, expressing concerns about the timing and the lack of adequate training for election workers. While he acknowledged that the hand count policy could be a sound election practice, he cited the infeasibility of its proper execution under the current timeline.
The new rule mandated that three sworn poll officers manually count the ballots and reconcile any discrepancies with machine totals. This rule was one of several passed by the SEB, but its blocking came amid legal challenges from Democrats and local election boards questioning its validity. McBurney argued that the inadequacy of guidelines and training, coupled with the potential for operational inefficiency, warranted preventing the rule’s enactment at this juncture.
Additionally, the judge’s decision emphasized that introducing significant changes to the election process so close to the vote could create confusion and inconsistencies, potentially undermining the electoral process’s effectiveness and fairness.
The State Election Board (SEB) passed a rule last month that sought to ensure the number of physical ballots counted matches the Election Day machine count total at the precinct level. But after Democrats launched a lawfare campaign, a Georgia judge blocked the rule on Tuesday despite acknowledging it would simply provide “confirmation that the machine counts match reality.”
Rule 183-1-12-.12 (a)(5) stated that “three sworn precinct poll officers” shall count by hand the “number of ballots removed from the scanner … until all of the ballots have been counted separately by each of the three poll officers.” If the machine count total does not match the hand count total, “the poll manager shall immediately determine the reason for the inconsistency; correct the inconsistency, if possible; and fully document the inconsistency or problem along with any corrective measures taken.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney himself acknowledged the rule “may be” “smart election policy,” but that “the timing of its passage make[s] implementation now quite wrong.”
“On paper, the Hand Count Rule — if properly promulgated — appears consistent with the SEB’s mission of ensuring fair, legal, and orderly elections. It is, at base, simply a check of ballot counts, a human eyeball confirmation that the machine counts match reality,” McBurney ruled.
But the judge blocked the rule from going into effect in his Tuesday decision, arguing the rule comes too close to an election and there is not enough time to properly train election workers.
The hand count rule was one of several election rules passed by the Georgia SEB in September. Earlier this month, the elections board of Cobb County asked McBurney to invalidate six of the state board’s rules. They also asked the judge to specifically stop implementation of the rule requiring counties to double-check machine ballot totals by hand, even though state statute already requires a similar reconciliation process, stating that county officials “compare the registration figure with the certificates returned by the poll officers showing the number of persons who voted in each precinct or the number of ballots cast.”
The Democratic National Committee and Georgia’s Democrat Party along with board members from four separate Georgia county boards of elections “also filed an emergency motion … seeking the same relief as to the Hand Count Rule,” McBurney wrote.
McBurney’s ruling enjoins the SEB from implementing the rule this close to Election Day while the court considers the merit of the complaints.
McBurney feared the rule would make the upcoming election “inefficient and non-uniform by the introduction of an entirely new process,” even though some Georgia counties have conducted ballot reconciliation by hand before. He further worried about the prospect of “thousands of poll workers handling, sorting, and counting actual ballots” in this way.
McBurney expressed concern that as of Tuesday, “there are no guidelines or training tools for the implementation of the Hand Count Rule” and no guidance is “forthcoming,” since Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office would be unable to “provide meaningful training” on the rule. Instead of training counties on the rule in the 25 days since it was passed, Raffensperger’s office told counties it would do nothing until the court weighed in, according to a memo obtained by The Federalist. Both Raffensperger’s office as well as the state’s attorney general opposed the rule change. SEB member Janelle King previously told The Federalist she didn’t “understand why there are complaints about the rule change being too close to the election while simultaneously delaying training.”
King told The Federalist she is “disappointed for the people of Georgia” following McBurney’s ruling.
“When the Attorney General and Secretary of State express opinions that directly contradict our rules, it places the judge in a difficult position, forcing them to rule on hypothetical scenarios,” King said. “I am deeply disappointed for the people of Georgia. However, sometimes the victory lies in the public knowing that the State Election Board is paying close attention to our election process.”
Cobb County Republican Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs told The Federalist that the lawfare efforts to block the rule “evidences that the left has created a narrative over common sense rules in order to prevent transparency in … elections.”
For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
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