A Georgia judge has recently halted seven new state election regulations supported by Republican Donald Trump, determining they would unnecessarily disrupt the voting process.
On Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox invalidated a rule mandating that ballots be counted by hand, along with two other rules related to the certification of election results.
“The rules at issue exceed or are in conflict with specific provisions of the Election Code. Thus, the challenged rules are unlawful and void,” Judge Cox stated in his ruling.
Early voting commenced in Georgia on Tuesday, with a record number of voters participating in the key swing state ahead of election day on November 5. Over 459,000 individuals cast their votes in person or by mail on the first day, significantly surpassing the previous record of 136,000 in 2020.
In the 2020 election, nearly five million votes were cast in Georgia, with Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by a margin of just under 12,000 votes. Trump refused to accept the result and is currently facing criminal charges for allegedly attempting to alter the outcome. A recorded phone call captures Trump urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”
A judge overseeing the Georgia case subsequently dismissed the charge related to that phone call, along with five other charges. Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis has requested an appeals court to reinstate the six dismissed counts.
The hand count rule, dismissed on Wednesday, would have required three poll workers in each of the state’s over 6,500 precincts to break open sealed boxes of ballots already scanned by machines to verify the counts. Critics argued that this rule could delay the reporting of election results, while supporters believed it would add only minutes to the count.
These rules, passed in August by the Republican-controlled State Election Board, have faced criticism from Democrats. In an August speech, Trump commended the Republican board members, calling them “pit bulls fighting for transparency, honesty, and victory.”
Judge Cox also criticized a rule requiring county officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying results, noting that it “adds an additional and undefined step into the certification process.” Another invalidated rule pertained to language that allowed county election officials “to examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections.”
Supporters contended that these rules would ensure vote totals were accurately counted before certification, while critics feared they could be used to delay or deny certification.
A different judge had already blocked the hand count rule on Tuesday, stating that the “11th-and-one-half-hour implementation of the hand count rule” would undermine public confidence in the outcome and lead to “administrative chaos.”
“This election season is fraught; memories of January 6 [the 2021 US Capitol riot] have not faded away, regardless of one’s view of that date’s fame or infamy,” wrote Judge Robert McBurney. “Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.”
The Harris campaign welcomed the hand count ruling on Tuesday, calling it an attempt to undermine confidence in the voting process.
In a separate decision on Monday, Judge McBurney ruled that election board members must certify vote results, following a Republican appointee’s refusal to certify the results of Georgia’s presidential primary earlier this year.
Georgia, known as the Peach State, is one of seven key swing states expected to play a decisive role in the contest between Trump and Harris.
