The Georgia State Election Board has voted to require its counties to hand-count ballots in the fast-approaching 2024 presidential election in November.
Officials voted three to two on Friday, according to NBC News:
The move, which will require poll workers to open up ballot boxes and count the number of ballots by hand at the end of the night, was approved by three board members who’ve been praised by former President Donald Trump and was opposed by Democrats in the state, as well as by the Republican secretary of state and attorney general.
Board Member Janelle King waved off concerns about the rule because she believes, “We won’t have a situation where we have any candidates saying that they think the count is off or they want an audit because something went wrong. We would have caught it at an early stage.”
In July, Democrats and Republicans in Georgia urged the state election board to do away with electronic voting machines and replace them with paper ballots, Breitbart News reported.
“After the 2020 presidential election, several counties in Georgia that had used Dominion Voting Systems’ software reported that they had encountered glitches during the election,” the outlet said.
The board, in August, voted to require county election officials to “make a ‘reasonable inquiry’ before certifying election results to the state,” the Associated Press (AP) reported:
Supporters say the measure is needed because members of county election boards must swear statements that results are accurate and need to be able to adequately assure themselves that the totals are correct before doing so.
“Why one would not want to assume there is some oversight?” asked State Election Board member Janice Johnston, who was appointed the panel by the state Republican Party. “It’s the duty of the board to provide some oversight, in a fair way, in a reasonable way.”
It is important to note that former President Donald Trump holds a three-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, Breitbart News reported on Wednesday, citing an Atlanta-Journal Constitution/University of Georgia poll.