The Georgia Election Board has approved a rule requiring election workers to hand count ballots in the November election and confirm that the numbers match machine counts before the vote can be certified. After all, was not each ballot submitted to the machine only once? The rule, first proposed in August, passed in a 3–2 vote on the morning of Sept. 20, making Georgia the only state in the union to adopt such a requirement as part of its standard vote-counting. This comes after the chaos of the 2020 voting machine counts.
Hand Count?
The new hand-count regulation is the first of 11 that the board was set to vote on Friday. The others include a proposal that absentee ballots be visually distinct from other types of ballots and another that requires poll workers to record the number of ballots cast from in-person scanners and reconcile those numbers to ensure accurate vote reporting.
How Does This Stand?
The Georgia Election Board is held by GOP. Those not wanting to hand count, to ensure the count of ballots, is the Democrat party.
Pros
Those who support this ruling have framed it as common-sense measures to bolster election security. Supporters of the hand-count rule have argued it would help increase public trust in the voting process.
Cons
Critics, such as the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials (GAVREO), say the proposed rules are impractical, poorly written, and inefficient in achieving their intended goals. They claim confusion and chaos when counting the ballots, which takes extra, unnecessary time.
This affects Missourians and our votes. Each vote in America should be counted only once. No state should be allowed to cheat and add to its numbers either way.
