Georgia election officials are preparing for early voting to begin in October but may also need to set up how each local election official will handle new rules established by the Georgia Election Board. The state election board has been meeting throughout the summer to establish new rules for how elections are held in the state to avoid some of the problems and allegations stemming from the 2020 and 2022 elections.
New proposed rules include counting dropped off or mailed-in ballots daily rather than on election night, hand-counting ballots as protocol, and mandating that all discrepancies be investigated by the county before officially certifying that county’s election numbers.
Democrats have filed suit to prevent the new rules from taking place. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has spoken against them. However, the biggest impact the new rules will have will be on local election directors and superintendents. It is up to them to ensure their office fully complies with state requirements.
“We’ve definitely thought about it,” said Danielle Montgomery, Walker County Election Director, adding that her staff has been implementing small changes that will help with any new rules.
She said many of the proposed rules aren’t going to be difficult for Walker County to establish but monitoring the dropbox at the election office is going to be one of the tougher things to do.
“The biggest hurdle would be the monitoring of the drop box and holding those tapes for 24 months,” she said.
Walker County’s election drop box will be up for three weeks and will need to be video monitored between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. when election personnel arrive, she said.
Noah Beck, Polk County Election Director, said his office wouldn’t make any comment on the state board’s proposals but has the goals and intentions to always remain in compliance.
Akin Beck, who is the Floyd County Election Director, is taking the opposite approach by giving interviews to many media groups including national media. She wasn’t available in her office Friday but said in one interview with Longview News-Journal that one of the problems is likely going to be recruiting new poll workers.
“Most of our poll workers start early in the morning on election day,” Beck said. “And now we’re asking them to hand-count ballots when the polls close after 7 p.m. That’s a long day for anyone.”
Akyn Beck posted on LinkedIn the reason election directors, supervisors, and superintendents do all they do in Georgia is because they believe in free and fair elections.
“We get up every morning, seven days a week because we care. There are 159 of us here promoting fair transparent elections,” Beck wrote in her post.
Other location election officials were called but we weren’t able to talk to them on Friday. The rules set by the Georgia Election Board will apply to all 159 counties.