The board approved the hand-count rule 3-2 with the support of three board members whom Trump hailed as “pit bulls” during an Atlanta rally last month.
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The board’s Republican chairman and its only Democratic member opposed the rule, saying it would introduce confusion too close to an election.
“It’s not true or accurate to say there won’t be delays on election night,” Greene County Elections Director Rebecca Anglin told the board. “You wait until all of that is done before it (votes) goes back to that office on election night.”
It is not known how long the count will take, especially in larger precincts with more voters. Some counties already count the number of votes, but that’s not a requirement.
State Board of Elections member Janelle King acknowledged that counting votes will take too long.
“I don’t want to set a precedent where we’re OK with the speed of accuracy,” said King, a Republican caucus appointee. “I assure you as a voter, I will wait another hour to make sure the count is accurate. What we are doing is creating more stability in our electoral process.
The rule is to count the number of votes cast, not which candidate received the most votes. Total votes are reported separately.
A recent adjustment to Georgia election rules after the state Board of Elections approved new requirements before results can be certified raises concerns that county election boards may refuse to do so if their preferred candidate loses in November.
According to the hand counting rule, after polling, three polling workers in each precinct will sort the ballots into piles of 50 or come to the election office the next day to conduct hand counting. The vote count must match the count recorded by the ballot scanner.
State Board of Elections Chairman John Fervier voted against the hand-counting proposal, saying it could be challenged in court and contribute to voter distrust in elections.
The attorney general’s office warned the board in a letter Thursday that the provision is not supported by state law, saying it is “a precise unconstitutional statute that agencies cannot make.”
“I think it’s too close to the election. It’s too late to train election workers,” said Fervier, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. “If the Legislature wanted this, they would have put it into law. You can’t read anywhere in the law. This board is here to make the law.” Not here.
The hand count proposal came from Sharlene Alexander, a Republican member of the Fayette County Board of Elections, who said election officials want to know ahead of time that on election night, all votes will be counted.
“Since 2020, we have been counting votes on election day and have done so during early voting as well. We don’t think it added much time,” Alexander said. “It’s not that hard. I don’t know why you keep saying mistakes are going to happen.
Election directors said they already account for ballots each day of voting, verify voter check-ins match the number of people who voted, and investigate discrepancies.
It is rare for ballots to be overlooked, but it has happened in some cases, such as poll workers forgetting to collect ballots that have been sorted into various bins inside the scanning machines.
In another case, voting machine programming errors in DeKalb County caused a county commission to miscount a race. Fixed a hand count problem.
Election directors characterized the idea of manual counting as a last-minute change that would make it difficult to conduct a smooth election.
The rule will come into effect from October 14, the day before early in-person voting begins.
Several voters who spoke to the board during public comments asked it to hold off on imposing new requirements because voting will begin soon.
“The proposals being discussed today introduce great opportunities for confusion, error, voter insecurity and litigation,” said Chatham County Elections Officer Barbara Gooby. “Proposals introduce the real possibility of human error.”
Hand counting is one of 11 new rules being considered by the State Election Board on Friday.
Some rule changes were passed, including requirements to allow pollster access to table areas and public posting of reconciliation statements explaining discrepancies.
The board rejected several proposals, citing concerns about potential costs to taxpayers.
Those initiatives would require non-mail ballot tracking, voting machine memory cards retained for 24 months, and distinguishing top-marked ballots from emergency and provisional ballots.
Many ballots have already been printed, and absentee ballots will be mailed to voters on October 7.
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