All ballots must be hand-counted; Ruling by Georgia Election Board rattles GOP establishment

by WorldTribune Staff, September 22, 2024 Contract With Our Readers

Despite objections from the state’s GOP establishment leaders, the Georgia State Election Board on Friday ruled that all ballots must be hand-counted by local precincts.

The board voted 3-2 to require the rule change.

Election Board member Janelle King, who voted in favor of the rule change, said: “What I don’t want to do is set a precedent that we are OK with speed over accuracy.”

“I can guarantee you as a voter, I would rather wait another hour to ensure that the count is accurate than to get a count or get a number within that hour, and then to find out at the close of an election, after certification’s” have already taken place “that we have people suing because the count was not accurate,” King added.

Board chairman John Fervier, who voted against the measure, apparently does not place much confidence in poll workers’ ability to be trained to do the hand count for this November’s vote:

“The overwhelming number of election officials that have reached out to me have been opposed to this. There are several things that concern me about this. No. 1, I do think it’s too close to the election. I do. I think that it’s too late to train a lot of poll workers that have already started their training processes.”

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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said after the board’s vote: “Attorney General Chris Carr has stated that these rules would not withstand a legal challenge, and I have worked every day to strengthen Georgia’s election law to ensure our elections remain safe, secure, and free.”

“Georgia voters can be confident that the reforms we’ve enacted since 2020 and have defended in court from frivolous attacks by Stacy Abrams will ensure only American citizens vote in our elections,” Raffensperger continued. “Our reforms have made Georgia elections the safest in the nation and I work every day to keep it that way.”

Related: Trump goes down to Georgia . . . and publicly slams its GOP top leaders, August 4, 2024

Related: Fixing 2020? New rule empowers Georgia county election boards to conduct ‘reasonable inquiry’, August 7, 2024


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