The fundamental right to vote and actively participate in the political process in the United States has remained a perpetual issue since the founding of our nation. Marginalized communities, such as women and people of color, have historically been disenfranchised from such political processes. Individuals who have held political power within these systems have repeatedly furthered their own agenda, often at the cost of those they represent. On Sept. 20, the Georgia State Election Board passed a new rule that “requires ballots to be hand counted three times before a result is declared.” The decision to incorporate this rule comes less than 100 days before the presidential election in November. The addition of this rule will introduce human error into the election process, which will potentially lead to a delay in results and cast doubt on the results in the key battleground state of Georgia.
The recent inclusion of this rule in the Georgia voting process will inevitably lead to a degree of human error in the results. Political analysts predict that the change in voting this late in the election could create a “nightmare scenario.” The rule is an outcome of a 3-2 Republican majority ruling of the five-member panel, which recently expanded its powers to investigate vote tallies prior to officially verifying them. State officials have raised their objections, which warned that the change came too late and could lead to chaos in the state. State Election Board Chairman John Fervier, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, voted against the hand-counted rule. He stated, “It’s too close to the election… Too late to train poll workers.” The lack of time to train poll workers for the upcoming presidential election will lead to human error, voter insecurity and lawsuits. Machines have been widely used to accurately track vote tallies. Georgia’s Republican Attorney General Chris Carr believes that the new procedure is unlawful due to the fact that state laws don’t allow local election workers to hand-count ballots prior to making votes official. The Georgia Attorney General’s office also put out a statement describing how the procedural changes would likely be illegal or invalid under state law and break the ballot change of custody. The proposed counting rules are also not attached to any Georgia statute or legislation. Both the legality and the illogical process to effectively enact this new rule will cast doubt on Georgia’s results.
In the past decade, baseless claims of voter and election fraud have penetrated mainstream media and politics. Former President Donald Trump is widely known for promoting the idea that there has been massive fraud in multiple U.S. elections. Prior to Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential race, the former president has disputed the legitimacy of the 2012 presidential election, the 2016 Iowa GOP primary and the 2018 midterms. Trump has repeated false claims that voter fraud cost him the state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential race. However, none of Trump’s claims have been proven true. Unfortunately Trump’s influence in American politics caused states such as Georgia to examine their respective voting procedures.
The new voting rule may give Republicans an advantage in the upcoming election. The hand-counting of votes three times will not only result in human error but also a delay in results. If there is significant delay, the electoral college in Georgia will be unable to certify their votes in time, which could lead to neither presidential candidate winning a majority of the Electoral College. If neither candidate wins that majority, then the election would be decided by the House of Representatives. However, it would not be the representatives voting. The vote would consist of state delegations, which Republicans control. If neither presidential candidate wins a majority of the Electoral College, Republican-controlled state delegations that do not represent the majority of the voters would decide the election. While this process may never occur, it is a legal possibility under the United States Constitution. The Republicans who voted in favor of the addition to Georgia’s vote-counting process were previously praised by Trump for championing change and ensuring voting accuracy.
Regardless of the original intentions for promoting this change, the new rule will inevitably create problems surrounding the results in the state of Georgia. The transition from voting machines to hand counting votes three times will bring errors to the voting process, which will lead to a delay in results and create doubt surrounding the legitimacy of the Georgia election.
Indranil Kar, FCRH ’26, is a political science and Arabic double major from St. Louis, Mo.
