Fulton judge strikes down Georgia election board hand-count rule challenged by Cobb County

A Fulton County judge issued a ruling Tuesday night rejecting a Georgia State Election Board’s new ballot hand-count rule from taking effect on the night of Georgia’s Nov. 5 general election.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney issued the ruling temporarily blocking the new Georgia election board rule challenged in a lawsuit filed by Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, which argued it would impose onerous new rules onto poll workers during  the 2024 election in a closely contested presidential election.

McBurney wrote in his court order that the election board’s approval of the hand-count rule came too late in this year’s election season to give  local election workers time to comply with new procedures for the November election. The injunction will remain in effect until McBurney makes a final decision on the case at a time to be determined, according to McBurney’s order.

The new state rule, which the state attorney general says could be invalid, calls for a trio of poll workers to hand count every paper ballot cast on election day and verify that their count matches the machine-calculated totals.

McBurney wrote that the hand count rule on paper appears to be consistent with the election boards mission to ensure fair, legal, and orderly elections, however its timing complicates the electoral process in a way that is not in the public interest.

“A rule that introduces a new and substantive role on the eve of election for more than 7,500 poll workers who will not have received any formal, cohesive, or consistent training and that allows for our paper ballots – the only tangible proof of who voted for whom – to be handled multiple times by multiple people following an exhausting Election Day all before they are securely transported to the official tabulation center does not contribute to lessening the tension or boosting the confidence of the public for this election,” McBurney said in the Tuesday order.

Read the order here.

Attorneys for the State Election Board and Cobb election board debated the hand-count rule Tuesday before McBurney during a hearing on the plaintiff’s emergency motions seeking to stop the rule from taking effect this year. The Cobb County board of elections is also asking McBurney to overturn several other rules adopted by the State Election Board in recent weeks.

The Democratic National Committee, and Democratic Party of Georgia and several local election officials in Georgia also filed motions opposing the new ballot counting rule.

“This labor-intensive process happens either late at night on election day at precincts across the state (with anxious and agitating observers) or in the days that follow at election offices ill-equipped to add yet another task to the many they tackle during that time,” the plaintiffs’ emergency motion brief says. “The end result: tired, undertrained poll workers sorting through millions of ballots with scant guidance and no oversight, under immense time pressures.”

State and national Republican political organizations have defended the implementation of election rules this close to an election, stating that they are necessary steps toward restoring public confidence in elections after Georgia’s narrow 2020 presidential election win by Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

McBurney also ruled Tuesday county election board members are required to promptly certify election results without delay, in another lawsuit challenging Georgia’s State Election Board rule changes.

On Wednesday, Fulton Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. is set to conduct an afternoon hearing on two separate election lawsuits, including several state election rules also being challenged in court by the Cobb election board.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder.