The Georgia supreme court on Tuesday rejected a Republican-led emergency appeal to get seven rules, most notably one that requires poll workers to count ballots by hand, reinstated in the last two weeks before the November election.
The state’s highest court unanimously affirmed Fulton County Superior Court judge Thomas A. Cox, Jr.’s ruling from last week that the ballot measures were “illegal, unconstitutional, and void.” The judge’s ruling will now remain in effect through Election Day, meaning none of the rules will be implemented by then. The appeal will still proceed, albeit much more slowly than the Republican National Committee wanted.
Georgia Republican Party chairman Josh McKoon said the state supreme court’s Tuesday decision was “supremely disappointing” in a statement on social media. “We will press our appeal next year and hope for sanity to prevail,” McKoon wrote.
The ballot hand-count rule would have required thousands of poll workers to compare their tallies to the voting-machine counts and ensure they match before certifying the election results in each county by November 12.
Though touted by McKoon as a common-sense measure, the hand-count requirement has been criticized by Democrats and even some Republicans for the possibility of slowing down the certification process.
In August, Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger warned hand-counting the ballots could lead to “error, lost or stolen ballots, and fraud.” One day before the State Election Board was about to pass the rule among others, Georgia attorney general Chris Carr said the rule is “not tethered to any statute” and is “likely the precise kind of impermissible legislation that agencies cannot do.”
Moreover, the conservative-leaning Eternal Vigilance Action filed an amended lawsuit to challenge the hand-count rule. It was approved by three Republican members of the State Election Board on September 20.
Some of the other ballot rules in question would have required local officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them, given county officials access to election-related documents, and required absentee-ballot deliverers to provide photo identification and signature at the delivery location in addition to three more rules.
Georgia started early voting last Tuesday and has since been shattering turnout records. The swing state has already seen 25 percent of its active voters cast their ballots, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling announced on Tuesday.
Also last Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court judge Robert McBurney temporarily paused the last-minute implementation of the hand-count rule pertaining to a separate legal challenge. He ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the legal deadline under no circumstances, regardless of whether there are any suspected fraudulent votes in the mix.