From today’s The Guardian:
On 20 September, the Georgia state election board voted 3-2 to require all counties to perform a hand count of ballots cast on election day to check the machine tabulations.
It was part of a suite of rules a pro-Trump majority has blitzed through in recent months that observers worry could cause confusion and open the door to undermining the election results.
Other new rules allow local election board members to undertake an undefined “reasonable inquiry” before they certify election results and allow them unlimited access to documents before they vote to certify.
The hand-count requirement, which was challenged in court last week, and the other new rules have elicited deep concern that Trump supporters have a powerful array of tools to create uncertainty about the vote this fall.
Here’s a look at the hand count and why it’s become so controversial:
The new rule requires three poll workers in each precinct to separate cast ballots into stacks of 50 and count them by hand. Each poll worker must count all the ballots until they arrive at the same total independently. They are counting the total number of ballots, not tallying the votes for candidates on the ballots. The count must either begin on election night or the next day.
Once all three workers reach the same total, they must sign a document that has the serial number on the ballot counting machine, election name and the time and date of the hand count. If the total number of ballots does not match the numbers on the poll pads used to check voters in, as well as the voting machine and scanners, the poll manager must immediately determine the reason for the inconsistency and correct it, if possible. The rule does not define what correcting any inconsistency will entail.
The rule only applies to ballots cast on election day. The state board of elections voted to put off considering a similar rule that would apply to early votes.
Read the complete story here.