Georgia’s hand-counting ballot rule raises risk for delays. How will Macon handle it?

A local official says new rule requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots in Georgia for the 2024 presidential election is going to pose further problems for Bibb County, which has already faced issues and vote-counting delays in recent elections.

The Georgia Board of Elections passed a rule Friday requiring poll workers in all counties of the battleground state to hand-count ballots for the presidential election just weeks before voting day, making local officials worried that poll workers will have a heap of new responsibilities and raising the possibility for delayed election results.

Macon’s local primary election results in May were delayed until a day after polls closed. In that instance, the cause was a faulty memory card that held a polling site’s total number of printed ballots. Election officials then had to insert certain printed ballots into a tabulating machine, rather than inserting the memory card into a computer to verify the total amount of ballots.

Tom Gillon, county supervisor of elections, said the new statewide ruling increases poll workers’ duties.

“It will take longer for the poll manager and their staff to get everything closed down at the end of the night,” Gillon told The Telegraph.

Poll workers will have until Nov. 6, a day after polls close, to count ballots. It’s unclear how total votes for races on the ballots will be impacted or what time results will appear on the Georgia secretary of state’s public-facing website.

“How that delays getting results is something that will remain to be seen,” Gillon said.

The ruling does not require poll workers to count votes, but rather total ballots. It is meant to ensure the same number of ballots scanned on a tabulating machine matches the number of hand-counted ballots.

At least three sworn poll workers will have to independently muster up the same number of ballots to match the amount counted by a machine, according to the rule.

It’s unclear what will happen if poll workers cannot agree on the total number counted by hand, or if a county decides to bypass the hand-counting process.

“We will figure out why the discrepancy is there,” Gillon said, in case an irregularity occurs. “Sometimes ballots kind of get caught up in the bottom of the tabulator. It might be something as simple as that.”

Gillon said he does not expect “any great discrepancies” with the hand-counting rule in place.

It could take a few weeks for the state to outline further instructions regarding how the ruling should be implemented locally.

“My understanding is if there’s a large enough number of ballots at a polling place, they can come back the next day to count,” Gillon said. “Otherwise, they’re going to be counting them that night after already having worked a good 14 hours in the meantime.”

‘Serious concerns’ about new rule?

Peter Simmons, the Georgia policy strategist at Protect Democracy – a nonpartisan nonprofit – said “serious concerns” and “significant opportunity for delay” could come from hand-counting ballots in a large jurisdiction like Macon.

There are over 117,000 registered voters in Macon-Bibb, and about 106,000 of the total are listed as active voters, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s election data hub . An active voter has either kept their voter registration information updated, or voted within the last two federal general elections.

“Nationally, hand counts occur in small jurisdictions … However, when you’re dealing with a jurisdiction that has like 117,000 registered voters, like Macon does, it becomes pretty problematic here,” Simmons said.

Hand-counting is not only time-consuming, but could produce errors, studies show.

The Georgia elections board recently passed other bills that “alter the chain of custody procedures,” Simmons said. This has amplified nationwide uncertainty about the presidential election process in a key swing state.

“That delay increases the opportunity for public distrust in the results, or mis- or disinformation to take effect and complicate an already contentious election contest,” Simmons said.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger denounced the state election board’s changes during a recent visit to Macon’s election office July 30. He showed up to run tests in person on their ballot-counting machines.

“I think this short sentence says it best. They’re a mess,” Raffensperger said. “Once you get so close to the election, it’s not a good thing to be going ahead and making last minute changes.”

The secretary of state has condemned Georgia’s election board for introducing protocols that are already in place. He said this adds to further confusion among poll workers, voters and county election officials.

“Georgia law already has secure chain of custody protocols for handling ballots, and efforts to change these laws by unelected bureaucrats on the eve of the election introduces the opportunity for error, lost or stolen ballots, and fraud,” Raffensperger’s website said Aug. 15.

Nonetheless, Gillon said he will “follow every law and every rule that’s in effect when the election happens.”