Trump's Trials - Georgia State Election Board votes to require ballots be hand-counted

Episode Date: September 20, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, All Things Considered Host Ari Shapiro speaks with WABE politics reporter Sam Gringlas. In a highly controversial decision the Georgia State Election Board voted to require a hand count of the number of ballots cast on Election Day. Supporters argue this change will ensure the integrity of the election, while opponent say the last-minute change could cause delays and confusion on election night and the days that follow. Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Dexrow. Supreme Court justices have issued a major ruling and an election case. The Justice Department will be relentless in defending the right to vote. Will you accept the results of the election? If it's a fair and legal election, absolutely. The Georgia State Elections Board has made another controversial decision. First, earlier this month, the board approved a rule that could allow some local election boards the ability to refuse to certify results.

All Things Considered host Mary-Louise Kelly spoke to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about that, and you can check out our last episode for that conversation. Here's what happened today. The board voted to require all ballots be hand counted. Now, that could likely delay election results in Georgia, which could be a problem since Georgia is a critical state in the coming presidential election and everyone will be looking to see which candidate comes out ahead there. When we come back, WABE politics reporter Sam Gringlis tells us more about it. Lauren Henry Summer is over, you're spending more time

in traffic, and the calendar is more full than ever. There is also a presidential election to keep track of. But fear not, NPR's daily news podcast, Consider This, can keep you up to date on the election and all of the other important things happening in the world. Listen to Consider This wherever you get your podcasts. From your car radio to your smart speaker, NPR meets you where you are in a lot of different ways. Now we're in your pocket. Download the NPR app today. You're listening to Trump's Trials. I'm Scott Detro. And now here's Ari Shapiro. Before we dive into this new rule, a state election board does not often get as much attention as the one in Georgia has been getting. Why are these relatively obscure

bureaucrats so important and potentially influential? Well, for one thing, Georgia is going to be a really important state in this presidential election and so the rules for running that election, they matter a lot. Now, this board and its Republican members in particular are already facing scrutiny for a pair of rules they passed in August that could affect how local election boards certify election results. Those members have been praised by former President Donald Trump, and many of the rules they passed have been crafted by activists driven by unfounded claims of election fraud.

And you reported on those certification rules earlier this week. Then today the board was set to consider nearly a dozen more changes. Tell us about the rule on hand counting ballots that they approved. So this rule mandates poll workers in each precinct hand count the number of paper ballots to make sure that matches the total number of ballots that were recorded by the ballot scanner. Charlene Alexander, a Republican who lives in Fayette County, sponsored the rule and she compared it to, you know, a basic cross check. You could be, sponsored the rule and she compared it to a basic cross-check.

You could be looking at the back, it doesn't matter, you're strictly going to go to the corner and you're just going to count those ballots. Now how difficult is that? Well it's very controversial so I assume it's more difficult than she makes it sound. Tell us about it. So to be clear, this rule is about counting ballots, not tallying votes for individual races that are on those ballots. But nonpartisan election officials testify that even so, hand counts are slower and less

reliable and any discrepancies could open the door for misinformation about the integrity of the election. Plus, officials like Erwin County Election Supervisor Ethan Compton say it's way too late to change the rules. Over 200 pages of elections code and rules have been implemented since 2020. We have practiced on them. We have trained. We are ready. Do not change this at the last second.

On top of that, the state board's nonpartisan chair, John Fervere, who voted against these rules, he warned about legal problems too. If this board votes to implement this rule, I think that we've put ourselves in legal jeopardy. And in fact, Ari, George's Republican Secretary of State and Republican Attorney General told members explicitly that these moves likely exceed the board's power, yet the three Republican members went ahead anyway. So do the rules take effect?

Do they get challenged in court? What happens between now and November? So today the board was set to consider 11 rules ranging from poll watcher access to tracking mail ballots. The board approved six and tabled the others until next year. But it is clear that these rules about certification and hand counts, they are drawing the most pushback. And while, yes, they are currently set to take effect ahead of November, ultimately,

a judge is likely to have the final say here, the certification rules are already being challenged in court, and a trial is scheduled for October 1st. W-A-B-E, Sam Greenglass in Atlanta. Thanks for explaining this, Sam. Thank you, Ari. Thanks for listening this, Sam. Thank you, Ari. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. I'm Scott Detro.

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