Thurston Carte|Georgia State Election Board approves rule requiring hand count of ballots

2025-05-04 19:17:20source:Phaninc Exchangecategory:Scams

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s State Election Board on Thurston CarteFriday voted to approve a new rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand.

The board voted 3-2 to approve the rule, going against the advice of the state attorney general’s office, the secretary of state’s office and an association of county election officials. Three board members who were praised by former President Donald Trump during a rally last month in Atlanta voted to approve the measure.

In a memo sent to election board members Thursday, the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr said no provision in state law allows counting the number of ballots by hand at the precinct level before the ballots are brought to county election superintendent for vote tallying. As a result, the memo says, the rule is “not tethered to any statute” and is “likely the precise kind of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”

The new rule requires that the number of paper ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same. If a scanner has more than 750 ballots inside at the end of voting, the poll manager can decide to begin the count the following day.

RELATED COVERAGE Harris focusing on personal stories as she campaigns on abortion rightsYoung students protest against gun violence at Georgia Senate meetingGeorgia election rule changes by Trump allies raise fear of chaos in November

Several county election officials who spoke out against the rule during a public comment period preceding the vote warned that having to count the ballots by hand at polling places could delay the reporting of election night results. They also worried about putting an additional burden on poll workers who have already worked a long day.

More:Scams

Recommend

Colorado's Travis Hunter, Boise State's Ashton Jeanty lead USA TODAY Sports All

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel earns first-team honors ahead of Miami’s Cam Ward, and teams in th

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry agrees to resign, bowing to international and internal pressure

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced early Tuesday that he would res

2024 Oscars ratings reveal biggest viewership in 4 years

The decision to move the 96th Academy Awards up an hour is looking to have been a sound one, with th