Pro-Trump Georgia Election Board Invites Chaos By Requiring Hand Count Of Ballots

A 3-2 Republican majority on Georgia’s State Election Board voted Friday to require local election offices to hand count the state’s millions of ballots, inviting chaos as experts warned the task would prove impossible in the state’s largest counties, which lean Democratic.

The rule was just the latest in a string of partisan votes from the board, members of which Donald Trump praised by name at a rally in Georgia last month. A few weeks ago, the board empowered county election officials —many of whom have challenged election results in the past — to personally investigate election results and demand reams of election-related documentation, potentially delaying the certification of the state’s results.

The board was made more partisan as part of a Trumpian election overhaul bill passed in 2021 after Trump lost the state in the 2020 presidential election.

Friday’s rule requires a hand count of all ballots by individual poll managers and two “sworn poll officers.” If there are any inconsistencies, including between the hand counts and ballot tabulators, they must be resolved. The rule will disproportionately affect Georgia’s largest counties, which lean blue and were key to President Joe Biden’s narrow win in the state in 2020. Nearly 5 million people voted in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

The state’s Republican attorney general’s office advised the board that the change — one of several rules under consideration Friday — was likely unlawful, and it will likely face a challenge in court. The previous rule changes regarding the certification of election results and access to election documentation are currently facing a suit from Georgia Democrats.

“These proposed rules are not tethered to any statute — and