A judge in the US state of Georgia has blocked an order for ballots in November’s presidential election to be counted by hand. Judge Robert McBurney ruled poll workers would not have received adequate training to handle millions of ballots, adding that the last-minute change would have led to “administrative chaos”. The hand count mandate was passed by the pro-Trump majority on the Georgia election board last month, and Tuesday’s ruling was welcomed by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
US Judge Blocks Georgia
Early voting began in Georgia on Tuesday, with record numbers casting their votes in the key swing state ahead of election day on 5 November. More than 459,000 people voted in person or by post on the first day of voting, officials said – more than triple the previous record of 136,000 in 2020.
Around five million votes for president were cast in Georgia that year, with Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by just under 12,000.
Trump refused to accept the result. He is currently fighting criminal charges that he unlawfully trying to change the outcome. A phone call recording has him telling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”. A judge overseeing the Georgia case later dismissed the charge related to that phone call, and five other charges.
The Georgia prosecutor pursuing the case against Trump, Fani Willis, on Tuesday asked an appeals court to re-instate the six dismissed counts. On Tuesday evening, the former president held a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, where he called on supporters to deliver a victory “too big to rig”, a reference to his longstanding unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen by mass fraud.
On the same day, Democratic candidate Vice-President Kamala Harris continued efforts to woo black voters, after polls indicated Trump was making inroads with this key demographic. She urged black voters not to give up on politics, telling radio host Charlamagne Tha God (real name Lenard McKelvey): “The things that we want, and are prepared to fight for, won’t happen if we’re not active and if we don’t participate.”
Her campaign welcomed the temporary block of the hand count rule, calling it an attempt to sow doubt in the voting process. In a separate decision on Monday, Judge McBurney ruled that election board members must certify vote results, after a Republican appointee to the board refused to certify the results of Georgia’s presidential primary earlier this year.
The certification case is one of a number of election-related cases passing through courts in Georgia, one of seven key swing states expected to decide the contest between Trump and Harris.
However, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg ruled that mandating hand-counts just weeks before the election would “create more chaos than clarity.” In her decision, she emphasized that while election security is a legitimate concern, there are established processes to audit and verify results without resorting to manual counts.
The ruling marks another flashpoint in the ongoing national debate over voting methods and election integrity. Georgia, a battleground state, has been under intense scrutiny since the 2020 election, with partisan tensions still running high.
State officials supporting the hand-count order expressed disappointment with the judge’s decision, warning that doubts about machine tabulation could linger among some voters. On the other hand, critics of the hand-count plan celebrated the ruling, calling it a victory for protecting election efficiency and voter confidence.
This development leaves the state’s election officials scrambling to finalize their procedures as Election Day draws closer. While Georgia law does provide for post-election audits, including limited hand recounts, many view this ruling as a necessary safeguard against hastily implemented changes.
With Georgia’s razor-thin margins in past elections, all eyes are now on how the state handles vote counting and reporting, ensuring that both security and speed are maintained as millions head to the polls.
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