A Georgia judge has temporarily blocked a rule that would have required election officials to hand count ballots after they were machine-tabulated. This ruling has Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign celebrating.
"From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it," said a joint statement from Harris' team and other Democratic leaders.
The statement came from Georgia Democratic Party Chair Rep. Nikema Williams, DNC acting Co-Executive Director Monica Guardiola, and Harris-Walz Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks. Their words reflect how united state and national Democrats are against this new measure.
The rule was set to take effect on October 22. It mandated that three county elections officials at each polling place manually count ballots after machines tabulated them. It passed in a narrow 3-2 vote by the State Elections Board (SEB), which now faces several lawsuits regarding this and other GOP-backed changes.
Democrats argue this rule was designed to create division and uncertainty, especially in light of the razor-thin margin in Georgia's 2020 presidential election, which was decided by less than 12,000 votes.
In the recent ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney criticized the SEB's timing. He pointed out that there was no training for election workers to handle the new counting procedure and no budget allocated for it.
"The administrative chaos that will – not may – ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly," McBurney wrote.
Georgia Republican officials and Trump allies touted the rule as a measure to boost voter confidence in the election process. However, McBurney acknowledged that while the rule "on paper" seemed to align with the SEB's goals, it could create more problems than it solved.
He stated, "Any new measure…that allows for our paper ballots – the only tangible proof of who voted for whom – to be handled multiple times by multiple people…does not contribute to lessening the tension or boosting the confidence of the public for this election."