Georgia strikes down new Trump-backed election rules

BBC:

A judge in the US state of Georgia has blocked seven new state election rules favoured by Republican Donald Trump after finding that they would unnecessarily interfere with the voting process.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox on Wednesday struck down a rule that requires that ballots be counted by hand, and two others that had to do with the certification of election results.

“The rules at issue exceed or are in conflict with specific provisions of the Election Code. Thus, the challenged rules are unlawful and void,” Judge Cox wrote in his ruling.

Early voting began in Georgia on Tuesday, with record numbers casting their votes in the key swing state ahead of election day on 5 November.

More than 459,000 people voted in person or by post on the first day of voting, officials said – more than triple the previous record of 136,000 in 2020.

Around five million votes for president were cast in Georgia that year, with Democrat Joe Biden winning the state by just under 12,000.

Trump refused to accept the result. He is currently fighting criminal charges that he unlawfully tried to change the outcome.

A phone call recording has him telling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”.

A judge overseeing the Georgia case later dismissed the charge related to that phone call, and five other charges.

The Georgia prosecutor pursuing the case against Trump, Fani Willis, on Tuesday asked an appeals court to re-instate the six dismissed counts.