- Poll workers may have to count out paper ballots come November's election.
- The state board went against the advice of the state attorney general's office in changing the rule.
- Watch the video to see how it could impact election results in Georgia.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Poll workers may have to count out paper ballots like this sample one right after voting is completed in November. I’m Malia Thomas, your neighborhood reporter in Valdosta, and I’m seeing the impact this new rule can have on my neighborhood.
Jataryia Thomas has been heavily involved in the voting process in her 25 years of living here. "I've always been interested in voting and, you know, the whole political process. When I came here for school to go to VSU, my major was political science."
She was even a part of a committee to help recount votes for our county in our last Presidential election. "We went in and had to watch them recount the ballots because they said something was wrong with our ballots when nothing was wrong."
And now she's uncomfortable with the Georgia State Election Board's order to count paper ballots by hand. "It was a big thing, you know, it was a long drawn out process. And so now you're talking about you want all of the ballots to be hand counted?"
In a 3-2 decision, the state board went against the advice of the state attorney general's office, the secretary of state's office and an association of county election officials to require that the number of ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same.
Supporters argued the rule ensures the paper ballots line up with the electronic tallies from scanners, check-ins, and voting machines. "You're so 100 percent certain that everything is perfect and elections show us the ballot."
However, several boards of elections, including our own, expressed concern with Election Day being fewer than 50 days away. Multiple groups have already filed appeals in response to rule changes the State Board adopted.
"I don't understand why we're here four years later. Like I said, they went through a whole lengthy process to make sure that there was nothing wrong with those machines."
Whichever way any appeals go, Election Day will be taking place on November 5th.
