Georgia election officials warn of chaos as Trump allies push changes ahead of November

The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote Friday on several election rules that have raised red flags among voting rights organizations, Democrats and county election officials in advance of the November general election.

The board could approve a final adoption of rules that would require poll workers to conduct daily counting of ballots by hand, create new ballot reporting requirements and expand access for poll watchers. The Democratic Party of Georgia, the left-leaning voting rights group Fair Fight Action, and nonpartisan election officials are expressing concerns that several rules on Friday’s election board agenda could delay results and be weaponized to undermine the electoral process if former President Donald Trump loses the upcoming presidential election.

This summer a right-wing faction of the election board has exercised its 3-2 control of the policy-setting state agency to advance rules revamping Georgia’s vote counting process a short time ahead of the election.

Several million Georgians are expected to cast mail-in ballots and vote in person at polling places by Nov. 5, when the presidential race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris could be decided, as well as other seats up for grabs in Congress, state Legislature, and more. Georgia is considered one of seven swing states in the presidential race according to recent polls.

The timing of Friday’s meeting is important since it is three weeks before early voting begins and six weeks before election day. If approved, county election staff and poll workers would need to be trained and ready to implement several new procedures in time for the upcoming election.

A new ballot counting rule on the agenda for Friday would require that after the polls close, the poll manager and two witnesses hand count the number of ballots cast and verify whether any differences exist compared with the number of scanned ballots recorded that day.

The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials said that any additional changes to the rules could interfere with the ability of poll workers to conduct elections and increase the likelihood of mistakes and delays with elections. The group’s president, W. Travis Doss, is urging the state board to delay implementing new rules until after the election.

Many local election officials “are gravely concerned that dramatic changes at this stage will disrupt the preparation and training processes already in motion,” Doss, who is the executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections, wrote in a letter to the board.

The controversial rules have been advanced at previous meetings with the three Republican members Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares casting the majority of votes needed for the five-member board to adopt new rules. Those three board members were praised from the stage by Trump at an Atlanta rally this summer.

The new certification rules and ballot counting requirements have drawn opposition from election board Democratic Party appointee Sara Tindall Ghazal and Chairman John Fervier, a nonpartisan appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

Republican supporters of the new ballot reconciliation rule claim it is designed to ensure that ballots are correctly counted and to detect possible errors as early as possible. The proposed rules have been promoted by the Republican National Committee and Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon, who has praised this year’s addition of King and Jeffares to the state board.

The Georgia Republican Party, VoterGa, and other right-wing players contend the new election procedures will better protect the integrity of the elections this year and beyond.

“These common-sense changes will benefit all Georgians, regardless of political affiliation as they are all designed to increase transparency and public confidence regarding our elections,” McKoon wrote in a statement.

The Democratic Party of Georgia says the ballot counting rules and more poll observer access are the latest attempts to undermine elections based on unfounded claims of widespread fraud stemming from the 2020 presidential election.

“The State Election Board exists to protect the right to vote for all Georgians, but Donald Trump’s ‘pit bulls’ for ‘victory’ are working on his behalf to sow enough doubt in our electoral process to allow him to fraudulently claim victory should he lose – just as he did in 2020,” the state party’se executive director, Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, said in a statement Thursday. “The SEB should heed the advice of non-partisan election officials across the state who have warned that making changes close to the election will cause chaos and focus on fixing the mess they have created.”

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has criticized the election board members following the “chaos” caused after the right-wing faction held a July meeting that came under fire for violating the state’s open meetings law. Raffensperger has called for the board not to adopt new election rules within the 90-day window of an election.

The State Election Board has previously passed a new rule that allows local election board members to access any election records and use any discrepancies to determine whether they vote to certify an election

The new certification rule in Georgia is contrary to a longstanding ministerial role of by local election officials, according to Bob Bauer, the personal attorney for President Joe Biden and a former White House adviser.

“Individual county officials or state board officials, as in Georgia, don’t decide whether an election went the wrong way, was fraudulent in some way, or marred by an irregularity that would have affected the outcome,” Bauer said at a recent election law media briefing hosted by the Knight Foundation.

There are several other rules up for consideration Friday that will not take effect in November, even if they are adopted by the board this week. One of those proposals is to add a new absentee ballot tracking method that would allow voters to confirm the status of their ballot as it’s processed by the postal service and election offices.

A lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party of Georgia seeks to declare the state election board’s recent rules invalid and two Republicans last week filed a lawsuit to block new election certification rules.

A new bipartisan group of influential former Georgia political officials has also criticized the conservative election board members’ recent rulemaking actions for contributing to undermining voter confidence.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.