OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Democrats are furious after the Republican-led Georgia State Election Board passed a rule that has drawn bipartisan criticism.
In a 3 – 2 vote on Friday, with three allies of former President Donald Trump casting the deciding votes, the Board decided that ballots must be hand-counted on Election Day, CNN reported.
“The new hand-counting rule requires counties to count by hand the number of ballots cast at a polling place to make sure it matches the number of ballots tallied by voting machines. The hand-counters won’t be tallying how many votes each candidate received — that’s what the machines do,” the report said.
State Election Board member Janelle King spoke to reporters after the vote and said that the rule was needed.
“Unfortunately, a few bad apples, a few miscounts here or there, a few double counts, lead to an overshadowing of the great work that many of our election board offices are doing time and time again,” she said. “So this is a very difficult position: Do we maintain the status quo because it’s easier or do we make a few adjustments so that we can be better?”
The Republican National Committee issued a press release after the vote and praised the decision of the board.
“We applaud Georgia’s Election Board members for passing these critical rules and continuing to fight for transparency and accuracy in Georgia’s elections. This is our country’s most important election, and Georgia has sent a clear message: ballots will be protected, and cheating will not be tolerated,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said.
The Democrat National Committee, by contrast, is vehemently opposed to the change.
“This is nothing more than an eleventh-hour effort by Donald Trump and his ‘pit bulls’ to slow down the counting of ballots so they can attack and undermine any result they don’t like,” DNC chairman Jamie Harrison said.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, also criticized the new rule when he spoke to CNN.
“We’re too close to the election,” he said a day before the vote. “We’re 50 days out before we have our election. In fact, we’re really just three weeks before we start early voting, and it’s just too late in the cycle.”
“The overwhelming number of election officials that have reached out to me have been opposed to this,” State Election Board chairman John Fervier, an independent who voted against it, said. “I do think it’s too close to the election… Most importantly, I believe this is not supported at all in the statute.”
But many Republicans celebrated the decision on X, formerly Twitter.
“BREAKING: The Georgia State Elections Board just issued a ruling requiring the HAND COUNTING of all ballots this November before the certification of the election. This is an incredible victory for the integrity of our elections. Incredibly proud of my home state today,” CJ Pearson, the co-chair of the GOP Youth Advisory Council, said.
“WOW! This board has been on fire lately. The Democrat member tried to stop the rule’s approval by saying they shouldn’t be changing election rules 90 days before the election, but Janelle King shut her down immediately Democrats used Covid to illegally change rules in the 2020 election, but now they want to complain when the State Election Board is doing it legally. IRONIC! These simple new rules the board is approving will stop election fraud in its tracks. I believe Trump will take Georgia and if they cheat, we now have mechanisms to halt certification until the cheat is remedied,” another X user said.
“BREAKING: In a 3-2 vote, the Georgia State Election Board passes crucial reconciliation rule that will require election workers to hand count ballots at the precinct level on election night… to ensure the physical ballot count… matches the machine count. Big win for election integrity in GA!” another said.
