A Georgia judge has ruled that the State Election Board exceeded its authority by implementing seven new rules related to certification, absentee ballots, and vote counting. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox declared these rules illegal, unconstitutional, and void. Notably, three of the challenged rules received significant attention. One required hand-counting the number of ballots after polls closed, while two pertained to the certification of election results. The hand-count rule had been temporarily halted by another judge the day before.
The State Election Board, which is predominantly Republican, had passed several rules in recent months regarding post-ballot processes. However, Judge Cox determined that the Georgia General Assembly did not provide sufficient guidelines for the board’s rulemaking process and that it lacked authorization to regulate federal elections. He also noted that these newly issued rules contradicted provisions in Georgia’s Election Code.
Former President Donald Trump contested Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results after Joe Biden was declared the winner. Two Georgia Republicans and a nonprofit organization called Eternal Vigilance Action filed a lawsuit challenging four initial rules related to absentee voting and election certification in September. Later on, they amended their complaint to include three additional rules.
Among these contested rules were ones requiring local election officials to verify election result accuracy before certifying them (the “Reasonable Inquiry Rule”) and allowing county election board members to review all relevant documents before certifying results (the “Examination Rule”). The plaintiffs also challenged a rule mandating signature verification and photo ID submission when using drop boxes for absentee ballots (the “Drop Box Rule”), as well as a rule requiring video surveillance at all drop boxes with invalidation of any ballots dropped in unsupervised boxes (the “Surveillance Rule”).
In late September, additional challenges were made against three more rules: one expanding areas where poll watchers can be stationed (the “Poll Watcher Rule”), one imposing extra requirements for absentee ballot reporting by county officials (the “Daily Reporting Rule”), and one mandating hand-counting of paper ballots on Election Day alongside electronic votes recorded by touchscreen machines (the “Hand Count Rule”).
Supporters argued that hand counting would only take a few extra minutes without causing significant delays in reporting results since scanner memory cards with vote totals could be sent during the count itself. However, plaintiffs claimed that implementing these new rules just prior to the 2024 election would violate Georgia’s Constitution and potentially disrupt voting processes.
The judge issued his ruling shortly before the November 5th election date.