By Jack Queen
(Reuters) -A Georgia judge on Tuesday temporarily halted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count ballots in November’s U.S. elections, in a defeat for Donald Trump, whose Republican allies pushed the change after he lost the battleground state in 2020.
The hand-count rule was passed on Sept. 20 by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgia’s election board, who said they were attempting to make the Nov. 5 election more secure and transparent.
Democrats had said the change would sow chaos and delay results.
Georgia, where early voting began in record numbers on Tuesday, is one of seven battleground states likely to determine the presidential contest between the former president and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, Trump made false claims of widespread voting fraud in the Southern state.
Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his decision on Tuesday that it was appropriate to pause the vote counting rule because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before Election Day.
“Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public,” according to the decision.
“The administrative chaos that will – not may – ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the State Election Board) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly,” the judge wrote.
Georgia State Election Board Executive Director Mike Coan said in a statement that the board’s majority is disappointed with the ruling but respects the decision.
“We respect the judge’s decision and agree with him that it was a good rule but have a sincere disagreement that it was too close to the election,” Coan said.
A representative of the Republican National Committee did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The judge did not say the rule was illegal but that it was appropriate to pause it pending further review. An appeals court could potentially reverse the decision.
Democrats hailed McBurney’s ruling as a win for voters.
“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,” party officials said in a statement provided by the Harris campaign.
‘OPPORTUNITY FOR ERROR’
The lawsuit was filed on Oct. 2 by the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration and was joined by the Democratic National Committee, which intervened in the case.
Also on Tuesday, McBurney ruled in a separate case that local election officials in Georgia are required to certify results, rejecting an argument that counties could refuse to do so if they had concerns about the voting process.
The hand-count rule would require three poll workers in each of the state’s more than 6,500 precincts to open the sealed boxes of ballots scanned by machines and conduct a hand count, starting as soon as election night.
Voting rights groups had said the rule could allow rogue county election board members to delay or deny certification of election results, throwing the state’s vote into chaos, while the state attorney general’s office warned the board was likely exceeding its statutory authority.
The board’s 3-2 vote was pushed through by three allies of Trump.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official, said ahead of the Sept. 20 meeting during which the rule was passed that it would introduce “the opportunity for error, lost or stolen ballots, and fraud.”
Janelle King, a Republican member of the elections board, said during the meeting that the hand count was needed to ensure accuracy, even if that meant results would be delayed.
“What I don’t want to do is set a precedent that we are OK with speed over accuracy,” King said.
There is pending litigation over other changes by the board, including rules empowering local officials to investigate discrepancies in vote totals and conduct “reasonable inquiries” into irregularities before certifying the results.
Trump faces criminal charges accusing him of pressuring Georgia officials to reverse his 2020 election loss, though he denies wrongdoing. He has pleaded not guilty.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York and Kanishka Singh in Washington, Additional reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Sonali Paul and Jonathan Oatis)
