Georgia’s plan to count ballots by hand could slow election results but ensure accuracy

Poll workers have at times overlooked write-in and emergency ballots sorted into different compartments of ballot boxes. And in some counties, test ballots that should have been removed from ballot boxes before the election were later found to have been left behind and then included in the 2020 presidential recount. Those problems don’t appear to have affected enough ballots to change any election outcomes.

Pushed through on a 3-2 vote by Republican State Election Board members, the hand-count requirement would change election procedures just ahead of early voting, which begins Oct. 15, and Election Day on Nov. 5.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

“The sky isn’t falling, but that being said, this certainly isn’t ideal,” Bartow County Elections Director Joseph Kirk said. “I’m concerned about people being scared about this. We’re going to have fair, accurate and transparent elections. Whether these rules are in place or not, that’s going to be true.”

Lawsuits seeking to overturn the hand-count rule have been filed by the Democratic Party, a former Republican state legislator and Cobb County’s election board. The cases could soon be considered by Fulton County judges.

According to the rule, three poll workers in each precinct would sort ballots into stacks of 50 after polls close. The hand count would be compared with the number of scanned ballots and voter check-ins, and then election officials would determine the reason for any discrepancies.

Republican State Election Board member Janice Johnston blasted critics’ “irrational and widespread panic” about the rule during a board meeting last week.

“These rules ensure chain of custody on election night so that there are no missing ballots,” Johnston said. “Everyone should take a deep breath and calm down.”

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

There’s little dispute that the ballot count will cause a degree of delay in reporting results as the nation watches what happens in Georgia, a swing state in the presidential race between the front-runners, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

It’s unclear whether the delay will be a few minutes or significantly longer, especially in large precincts. Some counties use “runners” to drive memory cards from voting machines to election offices to be quickly counted, but most counties transport paper ballots and memory cards together after they finish closing precincts.

Kristin Nabers, Georgia director of All Voting Is Local, showed a stack of 1,872 pieces of paper to the State Election Board, representing how many ballots poll workers would have to count in a large precinct after working a 14-hour Election Day.

“Counting thousands of ballots by hand will be an incredibly tedious, expensive and possibly error-prone process,” Nabers said. “Any human errors can be exploited by election deniers to sow distrust and decrease confidence in our elections and in the hardworking election officials that run them.”

Some other states conduct similar election night ballot reconciliation procedures, such as California and Illinois.

Before California changed from the kind of neighborhood precincts used in Georgia elections to larger vote centers, poll workers reconciled ballots at polling places on election night, a process that took about an hour, Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber said. Now, ballot boxes are only opened after they’re returned to California election offices.

“They would go through and count the number of pieces of paper to ensure that the number that was tabulated equaled the number of (voter) signatures that were on the roster,” Webber said. “It’s just one tool. There’s just so many things you have to do to ensure the whole election was run properly.”

Ballots have been left behind in scanner bins as recently as this spring’s primary election.

In Coffee County, during a recount of local races in May, election workers discovered 20 write-in ballots that were sorted into separate compartments from other ballots in ballot boxes. Those ballots wouldn’t have been included in the recount if they hadn’t been found.

“The right time to collect and reconcile and account for all ballots is before workers and watchers leave the polls,” said Marilyn Marks, executive director for the Coalition for Good Governance, an election security organization.

During the 2020 recount, test ballots appear to have been introduced into the final tally, according to an analysis by Phillip Davis, a conservative computer expert. His analysis found 250 apparent test ballots from Fulton, often with one candidate for the Senate selected and every other race left blank. He also identified a few dozen additional test ballots in other counties during the recount.

An election night ballot count could have identified and removed test ballots, Marks said.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said Georgia’s new election rules will safeguard the election and avoid fraud.

Allegations of widespread fraud were never proved after the 2020 election, but some counting errors in recounts and audits were eventually uncovered. There’s no indication that those mistakes would have changed the outcome of the election, which Joe Biden won by about 12,000 votes in Georgia.

“This is our country’s most important election, and Georgia has sent a clear message: Ballots will be protected, and cheating will not be tolerated,” Whatley said.