The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, with support from the Harris campaign, plan to challenge a new rule requiring all ballots to be counted by hand. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
National and state Democrats plan to file a lawsuit on behalf of local election officials challenging a controversial new rule requiring election workers to hand count ballots on election day.
The Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, with support from the Harris campaign, will challenge a rule passed this month that was pushed through by three state election board members that former President Donald Trump said are “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
The new rule requires that three poll workers sort ballots into piles of 50 and count every ballot to determine if the hand count accurately aligns with the number of total ballots scanned at each polling location on Election Day.
The complaint will be filed in Fulton County on behalf of election officials in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.
The new rule was passed a little more than a week ago over the objections of Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who are both Republicans. Carr warned at the time that the board’s action likely exceeded the panel’s authority.
Others cautioned that the new rule would result in chaos and delays reporting results in the swing state for the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The lawsuit points to those concerns raised at the time and argues the new rule conflicts with state election code and “violates foundational limits on agencies that are intended to avoid precisely the scenario here — an unelected body unilaterally making significant changes to the law without notice or explanation,” according to the lawsuit, which was obtained by the Georgia Recorder.
“To protect the sanctity of the state’s laws and to prevent election night chaos, this Court should declare that the Hand Count Rule exceeds SEB’s statutory authority and enjoin that rule from going into effect,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit is asking the court to deem the rule invalid.
“As Donald Trump invents facts to try to sow doubt in our elections, his MAGA allies in Georgia passed a new rule just weeks before Election Day that will obstruct the process of counting votes so they can complain when voters reject Trump at the polls,” Harris-Walz Campaign principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks said in a statement.
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