Georgia legislators are expressing relief over a judge’s decision to block the Republican-led hand-counted ballot rule which many worried would at least muddy the election process and delay results causing election night issues and more post-election chaos.
On Friday, Sept. 20, with just six weeks to go before the Nov. 5 presidential vote, the pro-Trump majority on Georgia’s State Election Board voted 3-2 to require ballots to be hand-counted in the battleground state.
In a late Tuesday ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that the so-called hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while considering the merits of the case.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) said he was “very concerned” about the state’s new hand-counted ballot rule, which he saw as an “effort to turn the democracy on its head.”
According to Sen. Warnock, the Sept. 20 ruling was prompted by the Republican-led state’s fear of Democrats growing in power. “The news that Georgia voters [ought to be] paying attention to is this: The fact that they are doing this, means that they know we’re winning,” Warnock said. “They know that the momentum is with Kamala Harris, and this effort to turn the democracy on its head, so that rather than the voters picking their representatives, the folks who are running get to pick their voters — it won’t stand.”
Warnock spoke of the “voter suppression” that he experienced during his election runs and the type that’s known to happen in efforts to stop certain communities from voting.
The Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia had joined the lawsuit as defendants with the support of Harris’ campaign. The campaign called the ruling a “major legal win.”
Trump continues to contest the 2020 presidential election results and falsely claims that he won the state and the presidential election in Georgia’s 2020 presidential race.
