The Republican-led group, Eternal Vigilance Action, is contesting Georgia’s recent mandate Poll workers are required to count the total number of ballots by handThe new rule passed with a majority vote on the State Elections Board, which includes three Republican members who have received praise from the former President Donald Trump,
The new hand-count rule has raised concerns among Democrats and voting rights advocates, who fear it could create confusion and reduce public confidence in the election results, especially if Trump loses to the Democratic vice president. kamala harris in November.
us President The election is scheduled for November 5,
Eternal Vigilance Action, the group founded by former state Rep. Scott Turner, amended its existing lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge the new rule adopted by the board last Friday.
The group was already suing the board over previous rules related to vote certification — a crucial process for finalizing election results. One of the former rules allows for an undefined “reasonable inquiry” before county election officials certify the results, while the second rule allows officials to collect all election-related information generated during the election, news agency Associated Press (AP) reports. Allows review of related documents.
Turner’s case is scheduled to be heard Oct. 4 before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox. The group is requesting that Cox either overturn the new rules or halt their implementation until the November presidential election.
In a telephone interview, Turner explained that his lawsuit is rooted in constitutional principles.
“They are not an elected body. They are not accountable to the voters; Therefore, they should not have the authority to make laws,” he said regarding the state elections board, AP reports.
The new vote counting rules state that three different poll workers must count the total number of ballots cast at each polling place until all three counts agree. If there are more than 750 ballots in a scanner at the end of voting, the poll manager may decide to start counting the next day.
Voters in Georgia select using a touchscreen voting machine, which produces a paper ballot that includes a list of human-readable options as well as a QR code for vote matching. Supporters of the new rule argue that it is necessary to ensure that the number of physical ballots matches the total recorded by scanners, check-in computers and voting machines. Three employees will count the ballots in groups of 50, and the poll manager will be responsible for explaining and resolving any discrepancies while documenting them.
In a memo released ahead of the elections board’s vote on the new rule, Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said the rule is “not tied to any statute” and can be considered “permissive law.” The memo warned that any rule that exceeds the board’s authority is unlikely to withstand legal scrutiny.
Turner sees his lawsuit as a way to present Carr’s arguments to a judge. Their amended lawsuit also includes challenges to rules requiring daily public updates on early voting and potentially allowing more partisan poll observers to observe the vote tabulation process.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and county elections officials had expressed concern about the new rule, cautioning that it could delay the reporting of election night totals and weaken the chain of custody of ballots. However, he noted that if poll workers send the memory cards recording the votes to a central tabulation location before they finish the manual count, the results will not be delayed.
Additionally, a lawsuit from state and national Democratic groups is opposing the two certification rules, with a judge setting a Tuesday bench hearing for that case. The state elections board has faced criticism in recent months as it considers new rules, many of which have been proposed by Trump allies and those seen as potential threats to public confidence in election integrity. goes.
“They are providing bonfire material for conspiracy theorists to attack the legitimacy of the election based on the grievances of a very noisy minority of Republican voters,” Turner said.