Georgia's election board passed a controversial hand-count rule: Here's what to know

A controversial rule passed by the Georgia State Election Board on Friday will require all of the state's voting precincts to hand-count ballots and ensure the tallies match machine counts before their deadline to certify election results.

The rule has sparked bipartisan criticism from opponents who say it will delay results and create space for election meddlers to spread disinformation and block certifying the actual victor.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said in an Aug. 15 statement that having polling locations hand-count ballots jeopardizes ballot security and risks dangerous delays.

"Quick reporting of results is a hallmark of Georgia’s election administration and bolsters voter confidence. Delays in results create a vacuum that leads to misinformation and disinformation," Raffensperger said.

More: Georgia State Election Board passes controversial rule opposed by many local officials

Backers argue the rule will bolster public confidence in the accuracy of the reported results, and that it doesn't change the requirement for all of Georgia's counties to certify their results by Nov. 12.

"These rules ensure chain of custody on election night so that there are no missing ballots," said board member Janice Johnston, one of the three members behind the rule, at a public meeting of the board Monday.

Former President Donald Trump has praised the three Republican board members who have passed a series of last-minute changes, calling them "pit bulls" fighting for "victory."

Trump's support, after falsely claiming for years that he won the 2020 election, has heightened attention to the board's actions.

The board members didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday, but King previously told USA TODAY she is "motivated to continue to uphold what is right and ensure that Georgia voters can have confidence in our elections."

Here's what to know about the board's latest election-related controversy:

What happens if they don't finish the hand-counting in time?

The hand-counting rule requires three separate individuals in each of Georgia's precincts – there are 2,400 precincts, according to Raffensperger – to hand count the ballots, sorting them into stacks of 50. Those three hand counts must match each other as well as match figures generated by machine counts. If the numbers don't match, a poll manager has to correct the inconsistency "if possible" and document it.

It's not clear what would happen if local precincts don't complete hand counts and verify that the ballot tallies match machine results by the certification deadline. The new rule simply states that the process "must be completed within the designated county certification period."

Asked what will happen if counties don't certify results on time, Raffensberger's office told USA TODAY that he has repeatedly said the deadline is Nov. 12 under Georgia law and his "expectation is that all Counties will follow the law and certify their results by that date."

Raffensperger has his own deadline to certify the statewide results – Nov. 22. Georgia's governor must later certify the state's slate of presidential electors. If those certification processes break down, the courts are left to decide the slate of electors that is sent up to Congress, where the national counting process will take place Jan. 6.

Anna Bower wrote in a Monday article for Lawfare that there might be no delays at all at the local level as a result of the new rule. She noted that some states, such as Illinois, hand-count ballots without significant delays, and nothing in the new rule explicitly bars a Georgia county from reporting its machine-counted vote tallies before completing the hand count.

Kim Wyman, a Republican who served as Washington's secretary of state from 2013 to 2021, previously told USA TODAY that hand-counting mistakes are to-be-expected, especially after working long hours.

"People are very bad at repetitive tasks that are mundane," she said. "That's why we've automated a lot of things in modern life, and counting ballots is a good example of that."

What have election officials said about the rule?

Many Georgia election officials have spoken out against the rule.

The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, a nonpartisan group of more than 500 Georgia officials and staff, tried to dissuade the three board members ahead of the Friday vote. The group said in a Sept. 17 letter that the hand-counting rule could delay results, set fatigued employees up for failure, and undermine public confidence in the election outcome.

Raffensperger also repeated his criticism of the hand-counting proposal in the hours leading up to the vote. Speaking at an election-related forum on Thursday, he said major election-process changes within 90 days of an election are a bad idea, and the "more moving parts you have, the more chance you have to fail."

Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr advised the board in a Thursday-dated letter that the hand-counting proposal was probably unlawful because the state legislature hadn't empowered the board to require ballots to be counted by hand.

Carr also said new rules on how to conduct elections "are disfavored when implemented as close to an election as the rules on the September 20 agenda."

However, Julie Adams, a Republican on Atlanta's Fulton County Election Board who refused to certify results in the May primary election, defended the rule at the board's Friday meeting as akin to double-checking the cash a bank issues.

"A machine is going to count the thousand dollars, the teller is going to hand count to make sure it's $1,000, and you ... are going to count and make sure it's $1,000," she said.

Board member Janice Johnston characterized the criticism as "an irrational and widespread panic" at the board meeting Monday. She specifically challenged the notion that the hand-counting rule, as well as other recent rules from the board, might be the basis for not certifying the election.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Johnston said. "Please let me reassure every Democrat and member of any other party and the citizens of Georgia that these rules will help to prevent a last-minute surprise of questioning the results about the count or audit or recount."

Will the new rule be in place in November?

The controversy surrounding the new hand-counting rule may be moot by Election Day because a court might decide to strike it down.

"(T)here is a good chance that the hand count rule will not withstand legal challenge and actually won’t be in effect at all when the election happens," Bower wrote in Lawfare. She noted the analysis from Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's office that the rule is probably unlawful.

The Georgia Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday on whether they plan to challenge the new rule in court. However, they have already challenged some of the board's actions.

The two Democratic groups are currently headed to trial Oct. 1 in a lawsuit they and others filed in late August over two rules the election board passed that month.

One of those rules requires county election boards to conduct a "reasonable inquiry" before certifying results, and the other allows local election officials to examine election-related documentation ahead of certification. Democrats want a judge to make clear the Nov. 12 certification deadline for Georgia counties must be met, regardless of those rules.

In a Friday statement, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison attacked the hand-counting rule as "an eleventh-hour effort by Donald Trump and his ‘pit bulls’ to slow down the counting of ballots so they can attack and undermine any result they don’t like." He didn't say whether the committee plans to sue.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia's new hand-count election rule: What to know