Military and Overseas Voters Push Back Against Georgia Election Board Rules

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Women sit around a table with stacks of ballots
Election workers counting ballots.

On the eve of the 2024 presidential election, the Georgia State Election Board passed several new rules at the eleventh hour that threaten to disenfranchise voters, specifically military and overseas voters.  

Campaign Legal Center filed “friend of the court” briefs in four lawsuits challenging the illegal rules. The briefs were filed on behalf of Secure Families Initiative (SFI), a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of military members and their families.

Georgia must certify their election by the mandatory deadline by law. It is essential that counties and courts do not open the door to delays. The state election board’s new rules open the door for counties to attempt to delay critical election deadlines and, which would violate both state and federal law.

At least one state court has agreed: Recently, a Fulton County superior court judge ruled that the hand count rule cannot go into effect for the upcoming elections. Other lawsuits should follow suit and invalidate the hand count rule before it goes into effect on October 22, 2024.  

One of the new rules requires poll workers at polling precincts to count and recount the ballots until they all arrive at the same number of ballots separately, mandates that poll workers compare the hand counts to the scanner counts, and instructs the precinct poll manager to “correct the inconsistency” where possible.  

This new rule could unfairly and illegally disenfranchise military voters who serve their country and go out of their way to make their voices heard.

Military and overseas voters already face more barriers than the average American in exercising their freedom to vote. For example, they must request an absentee ballot because they can’t vote in-person, they don’t have the benefit of drop boxes, and living abroad could also mean mail times are less reliable.  

The election board’s new rules could make it even more challenging for military and overseas voters to make their voices heard in elections.  

Brave service members, their families and other Americans abroad should have the same opportunity to vote as any other American. Not only do these new rules put Americans’ freedom to vote in jeopardy, but hand counting the number of all ballots could overwhelm election officials during an already busy election season.  

Just recently, a Georgia court held that election officials do not have the authority to delay certification. CLC and SFI hope that the court will also take swift action in all four of these cases to ensure counties follow the law and all the required steps so the 2024 election is secure, accurate and certified on time.

Valencia is a Legal Counsel, Voting Rights at CLC.