Georgia's top court will not fast-track appeal of US ballot hand-count rule

By Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Georgia's top court declined on Tuesday to hear an expedited appeal by Republicans of a decision blocking a new rule that would have required poll workers to hand-count ballots, a change that voting rights groups warned could have caused chaos.

The decision also means that county-level officials in the state, one of seven battlegrounds expected to play a decisive role in the Nov. 5 presidential election, will not have enhanced authority to challenge precinct-level results.

Republican candidate Donald Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 loss was the result of widespread fraud and his backers have filed a series of lawsuits across the U.S. challenging election rules.

The state Republican Party said in a statement that it did not plan an appeal of the decision before the election.

"It is supremely disappointing to observe yet another failure of our judicial system to expeditiously resolve critical questions about our elections process," state party Chairman Josh McKoon said in a statement. "We will press our appeal next year."

The rules, passed by the Georgia board's Republican majority, would have empowered county election board members to investigate discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and voters in each precinct, and examine troves of election-related documents before certifying their results.

One of the most controversial changes would have required poll workers in each of the state's more than 6,500 precincts to open the sealed boxes of ballots scanned by machines and conduct a hand count, starting as soon as election night.

Voting rights groups had said the rule could allow rogue county election board members to delay or deny certification of election results, throwing the state's vote into chaos, while the state attorney general's office warned the board was likely exceeding its statutory authority.

Georgia Supreme Court justices on Tuesday unanimously denied an emergency motion to pause an order blocking the rules and expedite their review of the case, a docket entry showed, meaning the appeal is unlikely to be decided until next year.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which intervened in the case to block the rules, praised the decision in a statement, saying the election board had sought to "inject chaos and confusion into our democratic system."

An election board representative and lawyers for the Republican National Committee, which intervened in the case on the board's behalf, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The changes by the election board were powered by three allies of former President Trump, who lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia in the 2020 election and made false claims of widespread voting fraud. Some senior Republicans continue to refuse to say that Biden was fairly elected in 2020.

Georgia is one of seven closely contested states that are expected to determine the winner of the presidential race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Trump. U.S. presidential elections are decided through state-by-state results, not by a majority in the national popular vote.

Judge Thomas Cox on Oct. 16 struck down the rules described by Republicans as necessary election security measures but which Democrats said were aimed at impeding certification of results in a state that could be crucial in selecting the next president.

Cox said the rules contradicted state law and found that the board had overstepped its legal authority in several ways.

"The rules at issue exceed or are in conflict with specific provisions of the Election Code. Thus, the challenged rules are unlawful and void," Cox wrote.

The board's passage of the rules drew bipartisan criticism. The conservative group that brought the case on Sept. 11, Eternal Vigilance Action, argued the Georgia board exceeded its legal authority in making the changes.

Republican Brad Raffensperger, who as secretary of state is Georgia's top election official, has said that the election board's "11th-hour" changes would damage voter confidence and burden election workers.

States must certify their voting results - confirming the accurate tabulation of the votes cast - as part of the process of determining a presidential election's outcome.

Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 in a failed bid to prevent Congress from certifying the voting results from November 2020 election. Democrats now are accusing Republicans in various states of seeking to delay or prevent certification of voting results unfavorable to Trump.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Richard Chang)