Georgia Judge Halts Ballot Hand Count Rule for 2024 Election

Voters cast ballots in Georgia's primary election at a polling location in Atlanta on May 21, 2024. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

A federal judge in Georgia temporarily halted a rule on Tuesday requiring election officials to hand count ballots in the 2024 elections, finding that it introduces uncertainty into the process.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that pausing the new hand count rule was appropriate, given that the election is just weeks away.

“Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public,” Judge McBurney said in his ruling, in which he described the election season as “fraught.”

“Because the Hand Count Rule is too much, too late, its enforcement is hereby enjoined while the Court considers the merits of Petitioner and Petitioner-Intervenors’ case,” the judge said.

However, the rule could potentially come into effect for future elections once the more than 150 local election boards have had time to prepare and train workers.

The lawsuit, filed by the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, centered around six rules passed by the Georgia State Election Board on Sept. 20. The plaintiffs argue that the rules violate state election laws by adding unnecessary and burdensome requirements to the election process.

The plaintiffs deemed the hand count rule the “most disruptive” of the six, which include a poll watcher rule, daily reporting rule, reconciliation reports rule, reconciliation rule, and recorded count rule. The hand count rule would require election workers in each precinct to verify ballots by hand counting after polls close on Election Day.

The six rules were due to take effect on Oct. 22, which would be seven days after early voting began and 14 days before the election.

Hand Count Rule

Under the halted hand count rule, after polls close on Election Day, the poll manager and two poll officers of every precinct would have been expected to open the scanner ballot box and remove the paper ballots. Three poll officers were to then count the ballots independently, sorting them into stacks of 50. Under the rule, each poll officer must have arrived at the same final count. Once aligned, the poll workers sign a control document with key information, including the polling place and scanner serial number.

If the total number of ballots counted doesn’t match the figures recorded on the precinct poll pads or scanner recap forms, the poll manager must investigate the cause, correct any errors if possible, and document the issue along with any corrective actions taken.

If a ballot box contains more than 750 ballots on Election Day, the hand count can begin the next day and be completed anytime during the week designated for county certification. If the count doesn’t happen at the precinct on Election Day, it must be conducted at the county election office.

Judge McBurney said the expectations of election workers under the new rule who wouldn’t have been sufficiently trained on them would do nothing to lessen tensions or boost the public’s confidence in this election.

“A rule that introduces a new and substantive role on the eve of election for more than 7,500 poll workers who will not have received any formal, cohesive, or consistent training and that allows for our paper ballots—the only tangible proof of who voted for whom—to be handled multiple times by multiple people following an exhausting Election Day all before they are securely transported to the official tabulation center does not contribute to lessening the tension or boosting the confidence of the public for this election,” the judge said.