A judge has blocked a new rule requiring Georgia Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after voting.
The ruling came a day after the same judge ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law.
The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close.
In a ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the so-called hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while considering the merits of the case.
In a separate case, McBurney ruled that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”
While they are entitled to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”
Georgia law says county election superintendents — generally multimember boards — “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election, or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.
The two rulings came as early in-person voting began Tuesday in Georgia.
In blocking the hand count rule, McBurney noted that there are no guidelines or training tools for its implementation and that the secretary of state had said the rule was passed too late for his office to provide meaningful training or support.
