The Georgia State Election Board has voted in favor of counties hand-counting ballots come November, a decision that could potentially cause delays in the reporting of Georgia’s election results, CBS News reported.
The critical decision was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority in a 3-2 vote. The vote came despite pushback from public commentators and democracy advocates, as well as some Republican officials, who accused the board of purposely throwing a wrench into the electoral process.
Election supervisors and poll workers gave said counting ballots by hand will cost a significant amount of time and money while also increasing the probability of errors. Georgia's Republican state attorney general advised the board that changing the rules now would be unlawful, The Washington Post reported, though it is unclear what will happen next.
John Fervier, chairman of the board, warned against passing the rule, saying it exposes the board to legal jeopardy as it doesn’t have the statutory authority to implement its plan. Any changes to the way Georgia counts votes should be made by the legislature, he said.
Some election officers also say that it would be physically impossible to hand count ballots in all counties, except for the smallest ones, adding that with 45 days to go till the election it is much too late to introduce new procedures that staff are neither trained for nor do they have the funding to carry out.
"Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official, told CBS News in a statement.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., told CBS News he viewed the board's decision as an effort to aid Trump's claims of voter fraud, saying Thursday: "They are fully trying to set up a scenario in which they could refuse to certify an election whose results they don't like."
