Judge McBurney suspends Georgia's hand-counting vote rule for presidential elections

A Georgia state judge put on hold a Republican rule requiring ballots to be hand-counted in the upcoming elections. Conservatives with a majority in the state chambers supported this rule which would provide more guarantees to the democratic process in the state. However, the Democrats claimed that the measure would delay and hinder the vote count.

The measure was passed by the Republicans on September 20. In Georgia, Donald Trump narrowly lost the presidential election against Joe Biden. After his defeat, the Republican went so far as to argue that voter fraud occurred in the state. Now, the polls for the upcoming presidential election on November 5 show Trump has a slim 0.5 point lead over Kamala Harris.

Georgia, along with six other states, will be one of the key states for the two presidential candidates. There, the early voting began this Tuesday, and voters turned out in large numbers, according to early data.

However, the judge who paused the hand-counting rule claims this was necessary due to the fact that the rule introduces novelties with very short notice ahead of the presidential elections and that therefore adds uncertainty to the electoral process. Therefore, the judge does not consider the rule illegal or to be corrected but that it is simply not the right time to implement it. However, the Democrats have considered the ruling a victory.

Harris' campaign team said in a statement reported by Reuters that "from the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger because of this decision to block it."

This is not the only ruling made by Judge Robert McBurney regarding the presidential election. On the same day, McBurney declared that Georgia election officials will not be able to delay or refuse to certify the results of the November presidential election, not even if they believe there are irregularities in the election process.

This ruling by McBurney regarding the elections was made following a lawsuit filed by Republican Julie Adams, a member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections.

Robert McBurney is the 5th District judge of the Georgia Superior Court. He was appointed to the bench in May 2022. Prior to that, he was nominated by Georgia Republican Governor Nathan Deal. He was the chairman of the grand jury investigating alleged interference in Georgia's 2020 presidential election.