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A Georgia judge has declared that seven new election rules recently passed by the State Election Board are “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox issued the order Wednesday after holding a hearing on challenges to the rules. The rules that Cox invalidated include three that had gotten a lot of attention—one that requires that the number of ballots be hand-counted after the close of polls and two that had to do with the certification of election results.
Cox found that the rules are “unsupported by Georgia's Election Code and are in fact contrary to the Election Code.” He also wrote that the State Election Board did not have authority to pass them. He ordered the board to immediately remove the rules and to inform all state and local election officials that the rules are void and not to be followed.
The Associated Press has reached out to the lawyers for the State Election Board, as well as the three Republican members who had supported the rules, seeking comment on the judge’s ruling. They could appeal but time is running short with less than three weeks to go until Election Day.
The State Election Board, which is controlled by three Republicans endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has passed numerous rules in recent months mostly dealing with the processes that happen after ballots are cast. Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election but claimed without proof that widespread fraud cost him victory in the state.
