The US state of Georgia has ordered a manual count of ballots cast in the November election, potentially causing delays in a process that has taken days to produce a definitive result four years ago.
Georgia’s board of elections voted 3-2 to require a recount, despite objections from state officials and poll workers.
An estimated five million presidential votes were cast in Georgia in 2020, with Joe Biden beating Donald Trump in a key battleground state by nearly 12,000.
Although manual counting of votes is common in many countries, including the UK, it is very rare in US elections.
The law passed Friday requires three poll workers in each of the state’s 6,500 precincts to begin counting votes on election night.
The move was opposed by the state’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, who warned that hand counting would expose the possibility of “error, lost or stolen votes, and fraud”.
In a call following the 2020 election, Trump pressured Raffensperger to “get 11,780 votes” — a move that, along with other allegations of trying to change the outcome, led to the criminal indictment of Trump and some of his allies.
Raffensperger publicly clashed with Trump but also ordered a recount of the state’s votes, which slightly changed the tally but confirmed the overall result.
Trump’s supporters at the Georgia Board of Elections say the hand count will make the upcoming election more secure.
“What I don’t want to do is set an example that we are right about accuracy,” said board member Janelle King.
Opponents of the move include county election officials, poll workers and voting rights groups, many of whom testified at the hearing on Friday.
They warned of possible delays and chaos as a result of the changes to the laws so close to the election. Early voting in Georgia begins on October 15. Election day is November 5.
Ethan Compton, Irwin County’s election manager, said ballots have been sent to members of the military who have been sent overseas.
“The election has begun,” said Mr Compton. “This is not the time to change the rules. That will only undermine the integrity of our elections.”
The board’s chairman, John Fervier, a Republican, voted against the legislation for that reason.
“I think it’s very close to the election,” he said.
Fervier warned that the board may not have the legal authority to require a hand count, and the change will likely face legal challenges.
Voting rights groups say hand counting can make the voting process more complicated and less accurate than machine counting.
Many Republicans, on the other hand, believe Trump’s oft-repeated but false accusations that the voting system is rigged and “rigged” by Democrats.
During a meeting in Atlanta in August, Trump called the board members “bulls who fight to win”.
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, said of the election board before the vote: “They’re trying hard to create a situation where they can refuse to certify an election that has results they don’t like.”
A change in the law came as there was early voting on Friday in other states including Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota.
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