In a state where only 12,000 votes separated the two candidates in 2020, the Republicans behind the rule are accused of wanting “to sow chaos in the electoral process.”
The Georgia Election Commission approved a new rule Friday, September 20, requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots for the November 5 presidential election in the southeastern US state where Donald Trump had contested his defeat in 2020. The rule adopted Friday provides for hand-counting of votes in addition to that carried out by machines, which could delay the publication of results in this key state. The goal, according to the text adopted by a vote of three to two, is to “ensure safe, transparent and accurate counting”but it is precisely criticized for the risks of confusion that this could create.
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. This Friday, it was the 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.
Neither “time” nor “funds”
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 counsel” and that a “many of those responsible for holding the vote” who contacted him “oppose it”Georgia House of Representatives Representative Saira Draper denounced an attempt to “to sow chaos in the electoral process”with assessors who will have neither the “time” nor the “funds” to implement the measure. One argument from critics who want 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 which 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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