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Voting rights advocates and local election officials Tuesday criticized new rules the Republican-controlled State Election Board has approved in recent weeks as unnecessary mandates that will only throw doubt into the voting process.
“This State Election Board has unleashed a Pandora’s box of chaos and confusion,” Isabel Otero, Georgia policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the state Senate’s Urban Affairs Committee, a panel made up entirely of Democrats. “[The new rules] are going to give them an excuse to deny certification [of results] and cause unnecessary delays. … Our voters deserve better.”
Specifically, Otero cited three rules changes the board has approved since early August allowing county election officials to certify results only after a “reasonable inquiry” ensures their accuracy, requiring those same officials to reconcile the total number of ballots cast in each precinct with the total number of voters, and requiring counties to hand-count the number of ballots cast at polling places on Election Night.
“Those three rules in combination allow bad actors to deny election results,” Otero said.
The three board members who voted for the rules changes have denied taking part in a conspiracy to help former President Donald Trump carry Georgia’s 16 electoral votes by sowing uncertainty in the election results and delaying certification of the vote. Instead, they have argued the changes are aimed at ensuring the integrity of the results.
But Chris Bruce, policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Georgia, said the board has overstepped its legal authority by passing the new rules just weeks ahead of Election Day.
“The State Election Board is trying to become a legislative body,” Bruce said. “All this is doing is spreading mistrust and voter apathy.”
Milton Kidd, director of the Douglas County Board of Elections, said the requirements the new rules will impose on local election workers after the polls close on Election Night are so burdensome he’s afraid many won’t be willing to serve in the future.
“There’s no legitimate purpose to having poll workers do this,” Kidd said. “It’s chaos from an administrative perspective.”
The Cobb County Board of Elections recently adopted a resolution opposing the rules changes.
“It’s a solution looking for a problem,” said Tori Silas, who chairs the Cobb board.
Cindy Battles, policy director with the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, said the new requirements are forcing counties to spend more money on municipal elections without help from the state. Some have even considered cutting their emergency services budgets to pay for elections, she said.
The State Election Board may not be through with rules changes. The board has additional meetings scheduled for Oct. 8 and Oct. 15 ahead of the Nov. 5 election.