The Georgia State Election Board Monday finalized a rule Monday that gives local officials more power to dispute certifying election results by adopting a new ballot counting policy that critics contend could disrupt the presidential election in November.
The new rule requiring election workers to manually count votes to reconcile any discrepancies was approved Monday by the election board’s conservative members by a 3-2 vote, carried by the three Republican board members recently praised by former President Donald Trump. Critics claim that Republican state election board members are making it easier to contest Georgia’s election results if Trump once again fails to win.
The rule change approved Monday requires election workers to manually count ballots to reconcile the total number of votes with the total number of voters prior to certifying results.
Three election board members pushing through the change, Janice Johnston, Janelle King, and Rick Jeffares, voted Monday to require election workers to reconcile any discrepancies prior to election certification. State election board member Sara Tindall Ghazal, a Georgia Democratic Party appointee, and Chairman John Fervier, a nonpartisan member appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp this year, opposed the rule Monday.
Under the change, ballots will be counted by hand in order to ensure that the total number of ballots cast is not greater than the total number of voters who submitted ballots. The rule proposal was submitted in July by Salleigh Grubbs, chairwoman of the Cobb County Republicans, who disagreed with the argument that the new rule is intended to delay the 2024 election results if Trump loses Georgia to Harris in November.
