Crawford v. State Election Board

Georgia first established its State Election Board (SEB) to bring uniformity to election administration in 1964. Since 1968, the SEB consisted of the Georgia Secretary of State who chaired the board, plus four appointed members — one selected by the Georgia House, one by the Georgia Senate, and one each from the Democratic and Republican Parties. In response to the 2020 presidential election results and unsubstantiated allegations of election interference, Georgia’s Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the Election Integrity Act of 2021 (Senate Bill 202), which changed how the chair of the SEB was selected. Instead of the SEB being chaired by the Secretary of State, the General Assembly gave itself the power to elect the chair, increasing the number of seats it names to three — a majority on the five-member board. 

On September 20, 2024, the SEB voted 3-2 to adopt a new election procedure called the “Hand Count Rule,” which was scheduled to go into effect on October 10, 2024, just as early voting was beginning for the November election. Under this rule, teams of three poll workers at each polling site would be required to open the sealed scanner ballot boxes and individually hand-count every ballot, starting as early as the close of Election Day and continuing through the end of the county certification period. These poll workers would be required to count and recount ballots until they all arrived at the same total and then compare the hand counts to the scanner counts. Any inconsistencies were to be corrected by the precinct poll manager, though no direction was provided to precinct managers as to what measures should be taken or what should happen if the inconsistency could not be corrected.  

On September 30, 2024, Teresa Crawford, Vasu Abhiraman, Loretta Mirandola, and Anita Tucker, who respectively serve on the Fulton, Dekalb, Gwinnett, and Forsyth County election boards, along with the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, filed a lawsuit in the Fulton County Superior Court challenging the Hand Count Rule. The petitioners argued the Hand Count Rule was invalid because it conflicted with Georgia Election Code and that the SEB lacked the authority to pass the rule and failed to follow Georgia’s Administrative Procedure Act. The petitioners asked the court to declare the Hand Count Rule invalid and permanently block it from taking effect. On October 11, 2024, the petitioners moved to intervene in the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration v. State Election Board case, which also involved a challenge to the Hand Count Rule.  

On October 14, 2024, the League of Women Voters of Georgia (LWVGA), New Georgia Project, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and Secure Families Initiative, along with several individual Georgia voters, filed an amicus brief supporting the petitioners’ claims against the Hand Count Rule, arguing that the rule would burden poll workers with additional and unnecessary procedures and could give election officials cover to refuse to certify results in the event of delayed or slightly discrepant counts. LWVGA and its co-amici also argued the SEB exceeded their statutory authority in issuing the rule because of the comprehensive procedures in Georgia election law for counting votes and certifying election results. Finally, the brief argued that the rule changes would harm Georgia voters, particularly Black voters and other voters of color, and undermine their faith in democracy. 

On October 15 and 16, 2024, Fulton County Superior Court granted requests for emergency relief in two other challenges involving the Hand Count Rule, blocking it from taking effect. The defendants in one of these challenges, Eternal Vigilance Action v. State of Georgia, filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia. On October 22, 2024, the court agreed to hear the appeal but denied hearing it on an emergency or expedited basis. On October 30, 2024, the Fulton County Superior Court issued a stay of proceedings, pending the court’s ruling in Eternal Vigilance. 

On June 10, 2025, the Georgia Supreme Court issued its opinion in Eternal Vigilance, holding that the SEB exceeded its rulemaking authority when it adopted the Hand Count Rule. On July 14, 2025, all parties in Crawford agreed to dismiss the case and the matter was closed. 

LWVGA was represented in this case by the Southern Poverty Law Center.