Today, LDF sent a letter to the Georgia State Election Board to oppose Proposed Rules 183-1-12-.02 (Tabulating Results) and 183-1-14-.02(8) (Advance Voting). The proposed rules individually and collectively would create additional administrative burdens on local election officials to conduct unnecessary vote counts, while also creating greater opportunity for mistakes during both the advance voting and Election Day tabulation of votes.
Proposed Rules 183-1-12-.12 and 183-1-14-.02(8) mandate that at the end of each voting day, during early voting and on Election Day, ballot boxes must be unsealed and the ballots hand counted by three independent poll officers. They must agree on the total count, and any discrepancies should be investigated and documented promptly. For early voting, every ballot box containing more than 1,500 ballots must be counted at the end of each voting day. On Election Day, the poll manager or assistant poll manager will decide when to start processing ballots. They can begin at the end of Election Day, or, if a scanner has over 750 ballots, they may start the next day and complete the process during the week before county certification.
These rules increase the workload for poll workers, especially those in larger counties, and even extend their working hours, which officials have neither accounted nor allocated resources or funding for. Requiring poll workers to unseal and hand-count the ballots may lead to errors from fatigue. Any mistake made during this additional, unnecessary process could lead to voter disenfranchisement and allegations of malfeasance. The proposed rule changes this close to the November elections have the potential to create uncertainty in the tabulation and certification process. LDF urges the Board to vote no on these measures.
Read the full letter here.
