Republicans on Thursday appealed a Georgia judge’s ruling from earlier this week, which declared seven election rules recently passed by Georgia’s State Election Board to be unconstitutional.
In a petition, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Georgia Republican Party asked a higher state court to overturn a ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox, who on Wednesday stated that the State Election Board did not have the authority to pass the rules and ordered it to immediately inform all state and local election officials that the rules are void.
Another rule struck down by Cox would have mandated voters to provide both a signature and photo identification when using a drop box for mail-in voting.
The lawsuit against the rules was filed by the Eternal Vigilance Action, an organization founded and led by former state Rep. Scot Turner, a Republican. It argued that the board overstepped its bounds by issuing the rules.
Democrats and voting rights organizations welcomed Cox’s ruling as a victory. County election officials from around the state have also voiced concerns over the flood of new rules taking effect so close to Election Day.
Other rules that Cox declared illegal and unconstitutional include those that require someone delivering an absentee ballot in person to provide both a signature and photo ID, mandate video surveillance and recording of ballot drop boxes after polls close during early voting, expand the designated areas where partisan poll watchers can stand at tabulation centers, and require daily public updates of the number of votes cast during early voting.
“The court here declares that these rules are illegal, unconstitutional and void,” Cox wrote in Wednesday’s order.
Supporters of the hand-count rules argued the count would take extra minutes, not hours. They also noted that scanner memory cards with vote tallies could be sent to county offices while the hand count is completed so reporting of results wouldn’t be slowed.
Supporters of the rules around certifying an election argued they are necessary to ensure the accuracy of the vote totals before county election officials sign off on them. Critics, including county election officials, said the rules could be used to delay or deny certification.
“Any last-minute changes to the rules risk undermining the public’s trust in the electoral process and place undue pressure on the individuals responsible for managing the polls and administering the election,” the president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO), W. Travis Doss Jr, said in a statement last month. “This could ultimately lead to errors or delays in voting, which is the last thing anyone wants.”
