Georgia election officials will not have to manually count each ballot on the night of November 5 before submitting them to the competent authorities. Judge Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court communicated a decision on Wednesday, of significant logistical, legal, and political importance for the presidential race and upcoming lawsuits. It does not declare the measure illegal for the future but prevents it from taking effect in 2024.
In 2020, Donald Trump lost the state to Joe Biden and initiated various maneuvers to try to reverse the result, pressuring officials and especially the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia (who did not yield) to "find" a few thousand votes to secure a crucial victory. Last August, a trial began against 16 of his associates or from the Republican Party in the area for these actions, and many of Trump's key figures have ended up in prison or reaching agreements with fines in exchange for testifying against the others. This is the case of Sidney Powell, who was a legal spokesperson for the former president and his campaign lawyer in 2016.
Therefore, the Republican strategy is different this fall, focusing many resources on a key and undecided state. Polls predict a narrow victory for either candidate, so Trump has hired dozens of lawyers and hundreds of volunteers to act quickly on November 5. Similarly, the party's strength at the state level has allowed them to gain the majority, by three votes against all, on the Georgia State Election Board. They have begun to change the rules, despite expert reports warning them that it was a mistake or illegal. Among these rules is the introduction of mandatory manual recount, something that technicians and the Democratic Party say would cause significant delays.
"No training has been provided (let alone developed), no protocols have been issued for handling paper ballots... and no concessions have been made in any county's election budget for additional staff and other necessary expenses to implement the manual recount rule," wrote Judge McBurney in his Tuesday order. "The administrative chaos that will -and cannot- occur is completely incompatible with the obligations of our election boards to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly," he added in a very harsh decision that criticizes the Republican members of the Board (a former state senator, a retired gynecologist, and an ultra-conservative media leader) for making such a modification so close to election day.
The new rule, which was supposed to take effect on October 22, would require counties to manually count the number of votes cast at a polling place to ensure it matches the number of votes recorded by the voting machines. The manual counters would not count how many votes go to each candidate, as that is what the machines do, but this verification would require breaking the sealed precincts. Critics say it is just a maneuver to delay the process, create chaos and doubts, with the possibility of challenging results in specific counties.
Secretary of State, Republican Brad Raffensperger, has stated that the previous rules were more than sufficient and that the change Trump wants could delay the "communication of results, foster an atmosphere of misinformation, and present chain of custody issues for the ballots." The judge agrees and points out that "anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process harms the public" and that this change two weeks before the recount "does not contribute to reducing tension or increasing public confidence in this election."
This is not the only issue at stake. In May, Julie Adams, a member of the Fulton County Election Board and close to Trump, filed a lawsuit arguing that she had the right to refuse to certify election results. But Judge McBurney also ruled this week that this aspiration was unconstitutional and contrary to state law, and that law enforcement and courts remained the appropriate place for "any investigation, challenge, or concern about the integrity of an election."
Judges also have to rule on another equally or more important change approved by three votes against all, which would require local election officials to conduct a "reasonable investigation" of the results before certifying them, a very vague mandate that, according to Democrats, could give county election officials total authority to delay or reject their certification of results "in a search for alleged electoral irregularities."
Although the formal election day is November 5, each state has different rules regarding mail-in voting deadlines or what is known as early voting. Since the main day is a Tuesday, and many people have to work, early voting is allowed in the weeks leading up to it. Georgia started precisely this Tuesday with overwhelming results, with over 300,000 people lining up to cast their ballots. In 2020, only 136,000 people voted on the first day.
There are two main reasons for these numbers. First, all eyes in the country are on the state, which is crucial. Kamala Harris will hold a rally there this Saturday, and Trump the following week. There is a lot of money invested in ads, propaganda, and local events, which helps mobilization. The second reason is that the aforementioned Election Board also implemented a series of changes that complicate or tighten mail-in voting, one of Trump's major concerns, by reducing the number of drop-off boxes, making in-person early voting more attractive, especially since there are more polling stations this year and shorter lines than usual. Additionally, weekend voting has been authorized.