The Georgia State Election Board on Friday voted 3-2 to require counties to hand-count ballots cast on Election Day, a move that could drastically lengthen the amount of time to tally results in a critical battleground state.
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.
“I want to make on the record that we’ll be going against the advice of our legal counsel by voting in the affirmative,” the Georgia election board's chair, John Fervier, said before the motion passed. Fervier, who was appointed by Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, and Sara Tindall Ghazal, the lone Democratic appointee on the panel, voted against the new rules.
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Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had previously warned the new rule could cause "chaos."
“We consider these major changes to the election process,” Raffensperger told NBC News on Thursday. “I guess we have several concerns. Number one is the actual counting of the number of ballots that you have at the precinct. That’s going to take time. Everything that we’ve done for the last six years has to speed up the process to give the voters the results quicker, and all of a sudden now they’re adding an element that it’s actually going to take longer.”
In a statement after Friday's vote, Raffensperger said, “Attorney General Chris Carr has stated that these rules would not withstand a legal challenge, and I have worked every day to strengthen Georgia’s election law to ensure our elections remain safe, secure, and free.”
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