Former President Donald Trump recently praised conservative Georgia State Election Board members Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares for their actions in adopting a new ballot counting rule. This rule, finalized on Monday, gives local officials more power to challenge election results, a move critics say could disrupt the upcoming presidential election in November.
The new rule, approved by a 3-2 vote, requires election workers to manually count votes to resolve any discrepancies before certifying the results. The vote was led by the board’s three Republican members, all of whom have been praised by Trump. Critics argue that these changes are aimed at making it easier to contest Georgia’s election results if Trump loses again.
Under the new rule, ballots must be manually counted to ensure the number of votes matches the number of voters. The proposal for this rule was submitted in July by Salleigh Grubbs, chairwoman of the Cobb County Republicans. Grubbs defended the rule, saying it’s meant to protect the integrity of elections, not to delay the results if Trump loses Georgia in November.
At Monday’s virtual board meeting, Grubbs stated, “We need assurance that the printed ballot results are accurate, and the only way to ensure that is by manual verification at the precinct level.”
However, voting rights group Fair Fight criticized the rule, claiming it was created by Trump supporters to undermine confidence in Georgia’s 2020 election results. Trump lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes in that election.
“Trump and his allies have taken control of the Georgia State Election Board to make it easier to challenge the results of the 2024 election if he loses,” said Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo.
Last week, the Georgia State Election Board approved another rule allowing counties to verify that vote counts are accurate before certifying the results. This rule makes the certification process mandatory before the election results are verified by the state’s office.
Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger criticized the new board’s actions, calling them a mess, especially after a July meeting that was accused of violating the state’s open meetings law.
Board member Sara Tindall Ghazal, who opposed the rule, questioned the timing of these changes so close to the upcoming November election, saying, We shouldn’t be making these last-minute changes. This is exactly what undermines confidence in elections.