New Georgia Voting Rules Could Create ‘Nightmare Scenario’: Analyst

Georgia’s new election rules that require poll workers to count paper ballots by hand could lead to a “nightmare scenario” in the battleground state in November, according to an analyst.
Earlier this week, Georgia’s State Election Board approved a new rule that requires ballots to be counted by hand three times before a result is declared. The three Republicans on the board also used their newly secured majority on the five-member panel in August to advance other contentious rules ahead of the election, including expanding county election boards’ powers to investigate vote tallies before certifying them.
Concerns have been raised that the new rules could delay the reporting of election night results and be used by former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and his supporters undermine the credibility of the results and public confidence in them if he loses to Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones, was asked during an appearance on MSNBC over the weekend how delaying the results in Georgia could hand the presidency to Trump.
“So what would happen is that Georgia would not certify its Electoral College votes in time,” said Berman, the author of Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People—and the Fight to Resist It.
“No candidate would get a majority in the Electoral College as a result and that would then throw the election to the House of Representatives, which has not happened since 1824.” No candidate received a majority in the Electoral Vote in 1824, leading to the House electing Quincy Adams in February 1825.
Berman said if neither Harris nor Trump had a majority in the Electoral College in November, “what would happen is the House would vote, but it wouldn’t be a majority of members of the House voting. It would be a majority of state delegations, where Republicans would have an advantage.”
That’s “really the nightmare scenario here,” he said. “You could have a presidential candidate who loses the popular vote, who does not win a majority of the Electoral College, but who then could be selected by House Republicans who don’t even represent a majority of that body.”
Berman noted that “it might be a far-fetched scenario, but under the Constitution, it is a possible one.”
Berman also explained the possible scenario in an article for Mother Jones.
“If no candidate gets majority in Electoral College, election would be thrown to House, where Republicans could install Trump as winner,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, alongside the piece. “That’s why Trump allies working so hard to block certification in Georgia & rig electoral votes in Nebraska at 11th hour.”
He added: “If presidential election gets thrown to House b/c of GOP shenanigans, a majority of state House delegations not majority of members, pick winner. That means Dems could retake House but Rs still pick Trump b/c of gerrymandering & overrepresentation in smaller rural states.”
Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison told Newsweek in a statement on Sunday that the rule change is “nothing more than an eleventh-hour effort by Donald Trump and his ‘pit bulls’ to slow down the counting of ballots so they can attack and undermine any result they don’t like.”
Harrison added: “There are already strong laws to ensure votes are counted fairly and expeditiously. And, as Republican officials in Georgia have made clear, these new rules made in the run-up to Election Day would only stymie voters, all to benefit Trump. While Trump and his MAGA allies try to undermine Georgians’ rights, Democrats are standing on the side of voters, who deserve the opportunity to make their voices heard at the ballot box this November, knowing their votes will count.”
Newsweek has contacted the Harris and Trump campaigns via email for comment.
Georgia’s hand-counting rule could still be struck down in court, with both Georgia’s Republican Attorney General Chris Carr and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger saying it was unlikely to survive a legal challenge.
“I think it could very likely be blocked in Georgia law,” Berman said on MSNBC. “Because, listen, when the Republican secretary of state weighs in ahead of time against these kind of claims, you know how serious it is.”
Carr “has stated that these rules would not withstand a legal challenge, and I have worked every day to strengthen Georgia’s election law to ensure our elections remain safe, secure, and free,” Raffensperger said in a recent statement to Newsweek.
Update 9/22/24, 11:20 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with a statement from Jaime Harrison.