Georgia Judge Blocks 'Chaotic' Rule Mandating Hand Count of Votes

For the second time in 24 hours, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney struck down a Georgia election rule proposed by allies of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with pro-democracy advocates applauding the decision for blocking the "administrative chaos" that, as one critic said, was "exactly the point" of the rule.

The judge temporarily blocked a rule passed by the Georgia Election Board late last month that would have required poll workers to conduct a hand count of all votes to ensure the tally matched that of electronic voting machines.

McBurney said the hand-count rule was "too much, too late" to add to the 2024 election process but said he would still weigh the merits of the proposal for future elections.

"The election season is fraught; memories of January 6 have not faded away," said McBurney, referring to the riot at the U.S. Capitol that Trump urged his supporters to take part in to stop the certification of the 2020 election, after the then-president spent weeks baselessly claiming he was the legitimate winner of the contest.

"Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public," added the judge on Tuesday.

The hand-count rule was set to go into effect on October 22, a week after early voting had already started in Georgia. County election boards were joined by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr—both Republicans—in opposing the rule, with Carr's office warning the Election Board had overstepped its authority by introducing the change weeks before the election.

"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," said McBurney.

At NOTUS, an online news outlet affiliated with the Allbritton Journalism Institute, Ben T.N. Mause wrote last week that the onerous hand-count requirement was already making it harder for election officials to ensure there would be enough poll workers on Election Day.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, applauded McBurney's ruling on Tuesday, saying the hand-count rule "was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome.

"Our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it," said the Harris campaign. "We will continue fighting to ensure that voters can cast their ballot knowing it will count."

Amanda Carpenter of nonprofit advocacy group Protect Democracy said demands for hand counts—like the ones that came from Trump and his allies after the 2020 election, which found no evidence of so-called "voter fraud" that would have swung the election—are "typically based on baseless conspiracies about voting machines, are intended to disrupt the voting process."

"Administrative chaos is exactly the point," said Carpenter. "Good ruling."

Georgia state Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes (D-7) called the rule "chaotic" and denounced Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for failing to investigate the MAGA-aligned Election Board members who pushed for the ordinance.

The ruling was handed down hours after McBurney ruled that local election officials must certify election results regardless of their beliefs that "voter fraud" has taken place—a defeat for Fulton County Board of Elections member Julie Adams, who refused to certify two primary elections earlier this year and has ties to groups that have denied Trump lost the 2020 election.