Elections Georgia judge blocks rule requiring hand-count of US election ballots

[Sweater of AV]

Good news.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/georgia-judge-blocks-rule-requiring-clerks-hand-count-number-ballots-nyt-reports-2024-10-16/

Oct 15 (Reuters) - A Georgia judge on Tuesday temporarily halted a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count ballots in November's U.S. elections, in a defeat for Donald Trump, whose Republican allies pushed the change after he lost the battleground state in 2020.

The hand-count rule was passed on Sept. 20 by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgia's election board, who said they were attempting to make the Nov. 5 election more secure and transparent.

Democrats had said the change would sow chaos and delay results. Georgia, where early voting began in record numbers on Tuesday, is one of seven battleground states likely to determine the presidential contest between the former president and his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, Trump made false claims of widespread voting fraud in the Southern state.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his decision on Tuesday that it was appropriate to pause the vote counting rule because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before Election Day. "Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public," according to the decision. "The administrative chaos that will - not may - ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the State Election Board) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly," the judge wrote.

Georgia State Election Board Executive Director Mike Coan said in a statement that the board's majority is disappointed with the ruling but respects the decision.

 

[nostradumbass]

And the DOJ is suing states to keep noncitizens on the voter rolls. The democrat party aren't even trying to hide it anymore. They seem to have given on Harris actually trying to convince voters and are already focusing their efforts on working their 3am magic.

 

[Rational Poster]

Leave it to conservative hacks to try to change election laws and regulations weeks before the actual fucking elections and pretend like it's no big deal.

 

[BFoe]

Good to see. The Republican Party’s attacks on our democratic institutions, and attempts to purge voters, introduce chaos, and disenfranchise voters is disgusting.

 

[Helden]

And the DOJ is suing states to keep noncitizens on the voter rolls. The democrat party aren't even trying to hide it anymore. They seem to have given on Harris actually trying to convince voters and are already focusing their efforts on working their 3am magic.

Excuses are starting already huh?

 

[iNoScopedJFK]

And the DOJ is suing states to keep noncitizens on the voter rolls. The democrat party aren't even trying to hide it anymore. They seem to have given on Harris actually trying to convince voters and are already focusing their efforts on working their 3am magic.

Like the same magic Trump wanted Raffensperger to do to magically conjure up 11,000 votes?

 

[Sweater of AV]

 

[idrankyourbeer]

And the DOJ is suing states to keep noncitizens on the voter rolls. The democrat party aren't even trying to hide it anymore. They seem to have given on Harris actually trying to convince voters and are already focusing their efforts on working their 3am magic.

save some top shelf cope for the rest of us.

 

[emefer]

And the DOJ is suing states to keep noncitizens on the voter rolls. The democrat party aren't even trying to hide it anymore. They seem to have given on Harris actually trying to convince voters and are already focusing their efforts on working their 3am magic.

Name checks out

 

[cincymma79]

Leave it to conservative hacks to try to change election laws and regulations weeks before the actual fucking elections and pretend like it's no big deal.

Oh piss right the hell offf

 

[emefer]

Oh piss right the hell offf

lol

 

[Ruke Doufus]

Can anyone elaborate on how hand counting ballots will sow chaos?

 

[Loiosh]

Can anyone elaborate on how hand counting ballots will sow chaos?

Yes, I could, but I suspect you wouldn't listen.

 

[Ruke Doufus]

Yes, I could, but I suspect you wouldn't listen.

I may not agree, but I am interested to hear a plausible explanation because it sounds ridiculous on its face.

 

[Loiosh]

I may not agree, but I am interested to hear a plausible explanation because it sounds ridiculous on its face.

Here, dismiss this CBS article.

It's right on the money, people SUCK at counting and take forever.

 

[Ruke Doufus]

Here, dismiss this CBS article.

It's right on the money, people SUCK at counting and take forever.

That's a good argument. I hadn't considered the ballot containing several races and I had presumed that competence in the hand counters would have been a priority. I can see the potential issues.

Point received.

 

[Loiosh]

That's a good argument. I hadn't considered the ballot containing several races and I had presumed that competence in the hand counters would have been a priority. I can see the potential issues.

Point received.

The company I work for was absorbed by a larger company. They also absorbed another company near by, and I was transferred there to help them out because they're incredibly disorganized.

I've spent the last month correcting inventory, and believe me when I tell you counting is hell.

 

[idrankyourbeer]

Can anyone elaborate on how hand counting ballots will sow chaos?

the republican gameplan was to sew as much doubt over the election as they can, and create all of these issues that don't exist over the ballots, using errors in hand counting and wanting to make sure they "get it right" as an excuse in order to make it take months to ever have a final count, thus missing the certification deadline, and ensuring that the electoral college votes would not go to kamala.

having a tiny batch of hand-picked people counting millions of votes in such a short time while unsupervised and under no real direction or level of authority would be a disaster, and there's no way that they could ever reach the numbers that everybody is happy with. human error will account for missing ballots that the machine counted, and they would have to keep going it back and counting them up again. and then if the results are close there would be a recount. and then an audit. and then maybe even a hand counted audit of a hand counted audit. and then come june when they finally reach a number, some retrumplican might still not be happy with it so they'll file some frivolous lawsuits and try to tie up the certification some more!

they were also fixing to just have a panel of unelected trump-endorsed officlals refuse to certify, or award the state to trump the moment that they discover any ballot that even looks funny at all. "oh no, this person who voted for kamala might have just moved so their address doesn't match up. this one ballot looks whack, therefore this election is void! we must have our own secret vote to determine whether we should throw out everybody elses votes and award the electoral college votes to our dear orange fuhrer, or if we should just not certify the election at all....but we will have to wait and see how the general election plays out for the other 49 states before we can make the proper decision!"

they also wanted to be able to refuse to certify the election if there was any legal litigation still pending, meaning if donald trump wanted to have the electoral college votes likely thrown out instead of going to kamala, all he would have to do is have his parking garage lawyer file some whackadoodle lawsuit the day before the deadline. it was the same kind of tactic they wanted to do with georgia on january 6'th, where they were pleading with mitch mcconnell and mike pence to not award biden the electoral votes for georgia because donald trump was appealing one of his frivolous lawsuits that got laughed out of court, and they were granted some kind of hearing on it in february or some shit.

they also had 6 other new policies struck down. and then had another unconstitutional lawsuit thrown out where they wanted to reserve the power to not certify the election. none of these were constitutional. it was a last ditch effort to try to undermine the georgia election, knowing that they are likely going to lose the state if they don't try to pull some funny business to disenfranchise the voters.

 

[idrankyourbeer]

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his decision on Tuesday that it was appropriate to pause the vote counting rule because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before Election Day. "Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public," according to the decision. "The administrative chaos that will - not may - ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the State Election Board) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly," the judge wrote.

the best thing about it is judge mcburney used judge kavanaugh's own "hand-counting will lead to chaos and confusion" words in his ruling.


judge mcburney ordered a halt on the hand counting rule for the 2024 general election and a a pause on the hand counting rule until 2025, because "it sounded like a good idea" but he believed they acted way too fast, and they have no capacity or plans laid out as to how they were going to enforce the hand counting and what the specific policies were, but perhaps it should be looked into more next year.

in other words, they had no plans, or even a concept laid out over what they wanted to do with their hand counting regulations, and how they would be able to manage it. they didn't have any staff. they had no outlines as to who would be supervising and overseeing the hand counting. it was simply just a "just trust me bro" that a bunch of retrumplicans mickey mouse'd together that would sound cool and then threw in front of the elections board just so that they could use hand counting use as a stall tactic to try to avoid having to certify the election.

and then on wednesday fulton county judge thomas cox said to hell with just having a pause on this, this is unconstitutional, and then nuked hand counting all the way into orbit, alongside mandatory ID, and 5 other unconstitutional power-grab rules that were passed by the georgia election board.

Georgia judge invalidates more controversial election rules

A Georgia judge determined that seven new rules passed by the GOP-controlled state election board were "unlawful and void."

abcnews.go.com

correct me if i'm wrong but i believe i read somewhere that these rules were defeated thanks to a lawsuit challenging them that was filed by a group of georgia republicans. i guess they were worried that the new rules would undermine the election and hurt their own candidates that they were backing, and they were putting their interests in the little guy ahead of donald trump.

 

[Sweater of AV]

the best thing about it is judge mcburney used judge kavanaugh's own "hand-counting will lead to chaos and confusion" words in his ruling.


judge mcburney ordered a halt on the hand counting rule for the 2024 general election and a a pause on the hand counting rule until 2025, because "it sounded like a good idea" but he believed they acted way too fast, and they have no capacity or plans laid out as to how they were going to enforce the hand counting and what the specific policies were, but perhaps it should be looked into more next year.

in other words, they had no plans, or even a concept laid out over what they wanted to do with their hand counting regulations, and how they would be able to manage it. they didn't have any staff. they had no outlines as to who would be supervising and overseeing the hand counting. it was simply just a "just trust me bro" that a bunch of retrumplicans mickey mouse'd together that would sound cool and then threw in front of the elections board just so that they could use hand counting use as a stall tactic to try to avoid having to certify the election.

and then on wednesday fulton county judge thomas cox said to hell with just having a pause on this, this is unconstitutional, and then nuked hand counting all the way into orbit, alongside mandatory ID, and 5 other unconstitutional power-grab rules that were passed by the georgia election board.

Georgia judge invalidates more controversial election rules

A Georgia judge determined that seven new rules passed by the GOP-controlled state election board were "unlawful and void."

abcnews.go.com

correct me if i'm wrong but i believe i read somewhere that these rules were defeated thanks to a lawsuit challenging them that was filed by a group of georgia republicans. i guess they were worried that the new rules would undermine the election and hurt their own candidates that they were backing, and they were putting their interests in the little guy ahead of donald trump.

The entire thing was idiotic and hilariously transparent.