Georgia, Oct 23, V7N- Georgia's Supreme Court has declined to hear an expedited appeal from Republicans regarding a blocked rule that would have required poll workers to hand-count ballots, a proposal that voting rights groups warned could lead to confusion and delays. The decision means that county officials in Georgia, a crucial battleground state in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, will not have increased authority to challenge precinct-level results.

The Republican-backed rule changes would have allowed county election boards to investigate ballot discrepancies and inspect election documents before certifying results. One controversial aspect would have required poll workers in over 6,500 precincts to hand-count ballots on election night, in addition to machine counts. Voting rights groups and the state's attorney general argued that the rule exceeded the board's legal authority and risked disrupting the election process.

The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous decision to deny an emergency motion halts the implementation of the rule for now, pushing any further legal resolution until after the 2024 election. Republicans argued that the changes were necessary to ensure election security, while Democrats and civil rights groups viewed the rule as a partisan attempt to interfere with the certification of election results, especially in a state vital to the outcome of the presidential race.

This case is part of a broader national push by supporters of Donald Trump to challenge election processes in various states, as Trump continues to falsely claim widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Georgia, which played a pivotal role in Trump's defeat to Joe Biden in 2020, is expected to be a critical battleground in the 2024 contest between Trump and current Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

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