Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block a controversial rule requiring hand counting of ballots in local precincts in Georgia, saying the rule violates Georgia law and is “improper.” he claimed.
A group of Democrats, including the Democratic National Committee and the Georgia Democratic Party, came after the Georgia Board of Elections passed new rules earlier this month mandating that ballots be counted by hand in addition to the usual machine tabulation. has filed a lawsuit against the Georgia State Board of Elections. .
The lawsuit is supported by the Harris campaign.The new rules claim that“Adds an additional hurdle to Georgia's established ballot collection and tabulation process,” as poll workers must ensure that the machine tally of ballots on Election Day matches the poll worker's hand tally. ”. The lawsuit argues that this rule makes it unclear how to actually resolve a discrepancy between the two numbers if they don't match.
Democrats also argue that the hand-counting rule is illegal, saying in the lawsuit that the rule “unreasonably adds new requirements to election law beyond what the General Assembly has considered and that the General Assembly has not enacted it.” inconsistent with the statute, especially with the changes.” “Part of the responsibility for overseeing the counting of ballots from county commissions to workers in individual precincts,” they claim, among other criticisms, is that the commission “exceeds its rule-making authority.” I am doing it.
The lawsuit also notes that several state officials, including Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, have expressed concerns about hand-count voting rules. That includes Republicans.
“As Donald Trump tries to invent facts and sow doubt on the election, Georgia's MAGA allies can file complaints weeks before Election Day if voters reject Trump at the polls. “We passed new rules to disrupt the vote-counting process,” Quentin Fawkes, deputy campaign manager for the Harris-Waltz campaign, said in a statement.
“We agree with Georgia’s Republican Attorney General and Secretary of State that this rule is counterproductive and illegal, and we are fighting it. We are intervening to ensure that everyone can vote with confidence that it will be counted in a fair election.”
This is the latest lawsuit filed by Democrats against the Georgia State Board of Elections over controversial new rules passed by the state election board. A court trial on some of those contested rules begins Tuesday, including allowing “reasonable scrutiny” before election results are certified.
The three board members have been praised by former President Donald Trump as “pit bulls who fight for integrity, transparency and winning.”
