{"id":1440,"date":"2024-09-23T14:33:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T18:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/?post_type=press&#038;p=1440"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:35:21","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T18:35:21","slug":"common-cause-clarifying-statement-on-georgia-state-election-board-hand-count-rule","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/press\/common-cause-clarifying-statement-on-georgia-state-election-board-hand-count-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Cause Clarifying Statement on Georgia State Election Board Hand Count Rule\u00a0"},"template":"","class_list":["post-1440","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"","featured_image":"","press_type":false,"authors":"","related_issues":false,"related_work":false,"location":13},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":["{\"site_id\":\"46\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":159}"],"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<b>ATLANTA\u2013 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Sept. 20, Georgia\u2019s State Elections Board (SEB) held a meeting passing a rule that would require poll workers to hand count the number of ballots from the ballot box, at the end of election day, after they\u2019ve been tabulated but before the results have been submitted to county election offices.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the new rule survives any expected legal challenge, election officials would have to count an estimated 1.5 million ballots as part of the poll closing procedure. For reference, Georgia voters <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eac.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-06\/2022_EAVS_Report_508c.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cast 1.4 million ballots<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at polling places on Election Day in 2022.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The SEB considered \u2014 but declined to approve \u2014 a similar rule that would have applied to Early Voting. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/GAVREO-Comments-on-Posted-SEB-Rules-9-17-24.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Georgia\u2019s Voter Registration Election Officials<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (GAVREO), <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sos.ga.gov\/news\/raffensperger-defends-georgias-election-integrity-act-last-minute-changes-delaying-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Secretary of State Raffensperger <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the Georgia <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/771219212\/FILE-1759\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attorney General<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s office have all opposed the rule changes for varying reasons including: the potential to delay results; the potential for error because of fatigued employees; the need to retrain poll workers so close the election; and the likelihood that the rules exceed the Board\u2019s statutory authority.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During these meetings, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the SEB has been proposing changes to Georgia\u2019s election certification process, a process that Georgia voters have trusted and relied on for years. This is part of a sequence of rule changes that also attempts to allow local officials to make an \u201cinquiry\u201d before certification, without defining what the term \u201cinquiry\u201d means.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<b>In response to this news, Susannah Goodman, director of election security of Common Cause has issued the following statement:\u00a0<\/b>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s important that Georgia voters understand what this means.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn this context, \u2018hand counting\u2019 actually means counting the number of ballots one-by-one, not hand tallying all the votes for each candidate in all races.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIntroducing this new rule just weeks before the presidential election is likely to cause confusion and expense. It will add delays on election night, as workers at each polling place have to implement a new and unfamiliar poll-closing process. It adds a new burden on election officials and poll workers, and counties will be required to pay for the additional time they work.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCreating a new possibility for confusion and delay on election night is not the best interest of Georgia's voters.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\r\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\r\n<\/span>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">###<\/span><\/p>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_add_component":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_work","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_work":{"heading":"Work","manually_curate":false,"work":null}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Common Cause Clarifying Statement on Georgia State Election Board Hand Count Rule\u00a0 - Common Cause Georgia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;In this context, \u2018hand counting\u2019 actually means opening up precinct ballot boxes after the ballots have already been scanned and counting the number of ballots inside the box one-by-one, not hand tallying all the votes for each candidate in all races,&quot; said Susannah Goodman, director of election security of Common Cause.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/press\/common-cause-clarifying-statement-on-georgia-state-election-board-hand-count-rule\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Common Cause Clarifying Statement on Georgia State Election Board Hand Count Rule\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;In this context, \u2018hand counting\u2019 actually means opening up precinct ballot boxes after the ballots have already been scanned and counting the number of ballots inside the box one-by-one, not hand tallying all the votes for each candidate in all races,&quot; said Susannah Goodman, director of election security of Common Cause.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/press\/common-cause-clarifying-statement-on-georgia-state-election-board-hand-count-rule\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Georgia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-23T18:35:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/press\/common-cause-clarifying-statement-on-georgia-state-election-board-hand-count-rule\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/georgia\/press\/common-cause-clarifying-statement-on-georgia-state-election-board-hand-count-rule\/\",\"name\":\"Common Cause Clarifying Statement on Georgia State Election Board Hand Count Rule\u00a0 - 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