What does the new rule say?

The new rule requires three poll workers in each polling district to separate the cast ballots into stacks of 50 and count them by hand. Each poll worker must count all ballot papers until they independently reach the same total number. They count the total number of ballots and do not count the votes of the candidates on the ballots. The counting must begin either on election night or the next day.

Once all three workers have reached the same total, they must sign a document that includes the ballot counter serial number, voter name, and the time and date of the hand count. If the total number of ballot papers does not match the numbers on the ballot papers used for voter control and on the voting machine and voting scanners, the returning officer must immediately determine the reason for the discrepancy and, if possible, correct it. The rule does not define what correcting any inconsistencies entails.

The regulation only applies to ballot papers cast on election day. The state elections board voted to delay consideration of a similar rule that would apply to early voting.

Why is this controversial?

Election officials across the state and voting rights groups have almost universally opposed the rule. They say it is unnecessary, will delay the announcement of election results and will open the door to confusion and misinformation once voting is complete.

“Misguided attempts to implement new procedures such as hand-counting ballots at polling places make it likely that Georgians will not know the results on election night,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement in August. “Furthermore, the fact that poll workers process ballots after votes have been cast at polling stations poses a new and significant risk to chain of custody procedures.

“Efforts by unelected bureaucrats to change these laws on the eve of the election raise the possibility of errors, lost or stolen ballots and fraud,” he said.

Polls in Georgia close at 7:00 p.m. local time on election night, and a new law in Georgia requires counties to report their early and mail-in votes by 8:00 p.m. But the hand-counting rule could cause counties to report their votes on Election Day until much later in the evening, creating much uncertainty about what is going on, said Travis Doss, the executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections. Georgia.

“There is a possibility that there will be a perception that the votes are not secure or incorrect because of a possible delay,” said Doss, who is also president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials.

His “biggest, biggest, biggest concern” is that the first results at 8 p.m. show one candidate ahead, but then the results change as more votes come in. There have been several swings like this in 2020, and they continue to be fuel for people who believe the 2020 election was stolen.

“Then the conspiracy theorists will start saying this is because they saw the person lose. And now they’ve, you know, invented voices, created voices and so on.”

“That just creates a dead zone where people say, well, they normally report results by now. We don't see them yet. There must be something going on,” said Bartow County elections director Joseph Kirk. “No matter how many people are watching me, no matter how many, no matter how transparent I am and what happens, people will believe that something is wrong because things have been delayed.”

The rule will likely result in a reporting delay for smaller counties that may not have the resources to get “runners” to pick memory cards from ballot scanners and bring them back to headquarters for reporting shortly after polls close.

“Some districts have the infrastructure to get results back to headquarters as quickly as possible and have for years, but most of us don't have that and everything comes back at the same time,” Kirk said. He further added that he does not plan to have election workers arrive multiple times. “There will be no results from my polls until the hand count is completed at this location,” he said.

Election officials also say the hand count is unnecessary because they already regularly check that the number of voters checking in matches the number of printed and tabulated ballots. Counties must also already have a person standing at each scanner while a voter drops their ballot. So if there was a problem with the tabulation, they would recognize it, Kirk said.

“These numbers are checked and rechecked and verified throughout the day to make sure you know at all times that the numbers match,” Doss said. “It's not open at 7 a.m. and then all of a sudden at 7 p.m. a big surprise…it's an ongoing thing, constantly monitoring (the equipment) to make sure all the equipment is working properly and…the numbers basically.” taken to match everywhere.” day.”