The Georgia State Election Board voted 3-2 on Friday to require counties to hand-count all ballots, in addition to machine tallies, in the 2024 election.
The decision, driven by the board’s Republican majority, means that ballots in Georgia will be hand-counted by election workers the night of Nov. 5 in addition to the normal machine tallies that take place. The move was celebrated by allies of former President Donald Trump, who believe that the changes will help alleviate concerns of voter fraud the former president raised four years ago in relation to President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the Peach State.
“GREAT NEWS!” former Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington said, praising the passage of the resolution. “HAND COUNT at precinct level to ensure the totals match with the machines … This is a HUGE win and was opposed by the Fake News, the Left, and Raffensperger.”
In this Dec. 14, 2020, photo, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference in Atlanta. A Georgia prosecutor is expected to seek a grand jury indictment in the coming weeks in her investigation into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the former presidentâs 2020 election loss. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began investigating more than two years ago, shortly after a recording was released of a January 2021 phone call Trump made to Georgiaâs secretary of state.
The decision also sparked some criticism from election officials and democracy advocates who fear it will cause delays, errors, and increased costs for the state. In the 2020 election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced six days after Election Day that there would be a statewide hand recount, and the results were not certified until Nov. 20.
Opponents argue that the hand count could take weeks or months, leading to uncertainty in the presidential race. Ethan Compton, an elections supervisor, emphasized that it is too late to adopt such changes, stating, “The election has begun.”