Georgia State Election Board Votes to Require Ballots Be Hand-Counted

Published: 9/20/2024, 2:12:36 PM EDT

Georgia State Election Board Votes to Require Ballots Be Hand-Counted — Georgia's State Election Board members discuss proposals to a full room for election rule changes at the state capitol in Atlanta on Sept. 20, 2024. (Mike Stewart/AP Photo)

Georgia’s ballots this year will be hand-counted in order to confirm electronic results, the State Board of Elections decided Friday in a 3–2 vote.

The official voting took place in a public hearing at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, and the results were tallied by voice vote. The hearing was livestreamed on YouTube.

Just before the vote, John Fervier, the chairman of the State Election Board, declared, “I want to make on the record that we'll be going against the advice of our legal counsel by voting in the affirmative.”

One of Fervier’s colleagues on the elections board, Janelle King, warned him that “every time you make a statement that this could be against the law, you are welcoming lawsuits, lawsuits that will be dismissed.”

King then said that she “just read what we can and can’t do, undisputed” while she held up a green book, which presumably contained the board’s by-laws.

The votes were then tallied, the results of which were met with some applause from the crowd.

King is co-chair of Let’s Win For America, a group which her husband Kelvin is chairman. The organization’s website says their mission is “to bring a winning conservative message to minority communities who traditionally vote Democrat."

Fervier was appointed board chair in January by Gov. Brian Kemp, who noted in a statement that Fervier, an Army veteran, spent 35 years working for Waffle House, rising to Vice President of Risk Management and Security.

“I am confident that under his leadership, Georgians will be able to trust in the integrity of one of our great responsibilities as citizens - the right to vote,” Kemp said in the statement.

After a contentious 2020 election where Georgia was at the center of the news cycle through the January 2021 U.S. Senate runoff, Republicans have been vocal that they want more measures to safeguard elections.

Fervier’s executive background in risk management likely factored into the governor’s decision to make the appointment.

Georgia awards 16 winner-take-all-electoral votes and is expected to be one of the tighter races in the country. RealClear Polling currently has former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.7 points in its Georgia average.

Historically, the state was a Democratic stronghold, with the party winning every presidential contest in the Peach State for 112 years straight until now-deceased Sen. Barry Goldwater (R–Nev.) won in 1964.

The Republican presidential nominee won the state six times in a row before President Joe Biden was victorious in 2020.

The state currently has two Democratic U.S. Senators and a Republican governor who has had a complicated relationship with Trump over the years.

On Thursday, Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, the executive director of the Georgia Democratic Party, criticized the decision by the State Election Board, saying their move is going to "sow enough doubt in our electoral process" to allow Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump "fraudulently claim victory should he lose."

Olasanoye did not return NTD News’ requests for comment.

Early in-person voting in Georgia begins Oct. 15.