The new Georgia rule that could cause election chaos
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 September 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Last Friday, Georgia’s state election board voted 3-2 to approve a new election rule: before vote totals can be reported, each precinct must confirm the total number of votes cast by three separate hand counts.
The move was spearheaded by a pro-Trump majority who say that it will make elections more transparent. But critics – among them many of Georgia’s election administrators – said hand counts would take too long, cost money and almost certainly produce counting errors, opening the door to doubts about the election results in November. The office of the Republican state attorney general, which is responsible for advising the board, wrote in an opinion that the change was unlawful.
This rule is the latest in a string of new election measures passed by the pro-Trump election board. Democracy advocates have accused the board of intentionally injecting chaos and uncertainty into the presidential contest.
Today on “Post Reports, host Elahe Izadi speaks with Amy Gardner, who covers voting for the Post, about how the rule change could affect the November election.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff, with help from Lucas Trevor. It was mixed by Sean Carter. And edited by Monica Campbell, with help from Reena Flores. Thanks to Griff Witte.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We'll call to order the Friday, September 20, 2024 meeting of the Georgia State Election Board. |
| 0:10.3 | So the Georgia State Election Board met on Friday to consider nearly a dozen new rules, |
| 0:16.0 | but one of them stood out much more than the others and attracted much more tension and concern, |
| 0:21.0 | notably from many, many county election administrators in Georgia. |
| 0:27.0 | You're going to hear a lot of speaking today on both sides of these rules that are being proposed today. |
| 0:34.7 | And you know the last thing we need is a lot of cheering and excess comments and all that stuff. |
| 0:42.0 | If you want to be respected... What the rule would do is it would require hand counting of ballots at the precinct level |
| 0:50.2 | on election night or in subsequent days. |
| 0:52.8 | Amy Gardner covers voting for the post. |
| 0:57.8 | She's been paying really close attention to Georgia. |
| 1:01.2 | She just got back from there where she watched this debate |
| 1:04.3 | unfold over how the state should run election night in November. Specifically a |
| 1:09.5 | proposal to count every single ballot in Georgia, not only by machines, but also by hand. |
| 1:17.0 | Election board members like Janice Johnston who supported this measure said it was necessary to increase transparency in a really |
| 1:25.8 | tight race. |
| 1:27.7 | What we're trying to work for, what I'm trying to work for is some uniformity and if some counties are counting ballots and others are not it's |
| 1:37.9 | not uniform. |
| 1:40.0 | But the majority of Georgians who spoke at this meeting said they were worried that making |
| 1:44.8 | this change this close to the election creates an unnecessary burden on election offices. |
| 1:51.8 | What this rule means is that election staff, many of whom are here today, are wedged into an ever |
| 1:56.0 | more crushing situation of needing to perform superhuman feats under rules that make a decision. |
| 2:01.0 | These rules do not protect our elections. They undermine them. |
... |
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