SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV)—Trump is expected discuss tax code and manufacturing in Georgia at his Savannah rally on Tuesday.
Although, the former president often has several other talking points at events, including election security and integrity.
Trump has made several unfounded claims that he won the presidential election in 2020 and won Georgia. However, the Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, certified President Joe Biden was the 2020 winner in Georgia and said fraud was very low.
Since 2020, there have been several rule changes for Georgia elections. On Friday, the state board of elections approved a new rule to have poll workers hand count all ballots, something that local boards of elections are concerned about.
“The problem that my staff has with these changes from the state election board is that they are new rules that were passed in September,” James Hall, a member of the Chatham County Board of Elections, said. “So, that means we’re less than three months out from the actual election.”
“From a practical standpoint, it is more difficult for my staff as well as the staff in most offices in the state of Georgia to be able to adapt to proposed changes that normally we have more time to adapt to,” Hall continued.
Several state officials have spoken out against the change.
“Attorney General Chris 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 Friday.
Local election officials also expressed concerns about poll workers’ ability to handle the workload of hand counting ballots.
“What these proposals are going to do is that after these mostly senior citizens have worked a twelve-hour shift,” Hall said, “they are going to have to manually count every single ballot in the polling place and then resume the normal chain of custody. So, the potential unintended consequence of this, according to my staff, is you’ve added an extra step to an already complicated and thorough chain of custody. By adding this extra step you’ve actually created the possibility for more unintended discrepancies to take place within the county.”
