US presidential election: Georgia decides on controversial manual vote count

The Georgia Election Commission on Friday approved a new rule requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election in the southeastern U.S. state where Donald Trump contested his 2020 defeat.

Because of the tiny gap – 12,000 votes – that separated him four years ago from Democrat Joe Biden, the Republican, once again a candidate for the White House, had requested several recounts of the votes. He has still not acknowledged his defeat.

The rules adopted Friday call for a manual count of votes in addition to those carried out by machines, which could delay the publication of results in this key state.

The aim, according to the text adopted by three votes to two, is to “guarantee a safe, transparent and accurate count”, but it is criticised precisely for the risks of confusion that this could create.

It was Republican votes that allowed the adoption of this text by the Georgia electoral commission, which had already made several changes considered favorable to Donald Trump in the electoral rules in recent weeks.

Shortly before the vote, the chairman of the electoral commission, John Fervier, had made it clear that the adoption of the regulation would go “against the recommendations of their legal adviser” and that “a large number of those responsible for holding the vote” who contacted him “are opposed to it”.

“Sowing chaos”

Georgia House of Representatives Rep. Saira Draper called it an attempt to “wreak havoc on the electoral process” with poll workers who will have neither the “time” nor the “funds” to implement the measure.

One argument from critics seeking to appeal the measure is that after a long day of voting, counting by hand can lead to more human errors and delay the release of results.

Donald Trump was indicted last year on charges of unlawfully attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia after he called a senior local official to ask him to “find” the nearly 12,000 ballots in his name that he needed to win the state.

The first Republican to lose Georgia since 1992, Trump has never been able to produce evidence of voter fraud, despite recounts and legal challenges.

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