As Election Day looms on November 5, several states across the U.S. have made last-minute changes to their voting rules, which may affect the way ballots are cast and counted. FOX10 Phoenix highlights Georgia and Arizona's move towards hand counting ballots at polling sites, potentially causing a delay in election results; Georgia's State Election Board announced on Friday the need for hand counts of paper ballots by three poll workers at each polling place, while Arizona now requires hand counting of ballot envelopes on Election Day before tabulation.
Despite varying state processes, these alterations are surfacing with the start of early voting and mailing of ballots already underway; "Last-minute changes to election rules whether from a state legislature, an election authority or a court can lead to confusion for voters and election officials," Megan Bellamy of the Voting Rights Lab expressed in an email response, as mentioned by Business Standard. Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, ballot drop boxes are back in play after a judicial swing in favor of their legality just before the state's August primary wherein both Milwaukee and Madison will utilize drop boxes again in November, though some towns have decided not to use them raising security concerns.
Business Standard reports on Ohio's directive that ballots must be personally dropped off in drop boxes and in Pennsylvania, where a state supreme court case could change how provisional ballots are counted if mail-in ballots are rejected for minor mistakes. In another shift, North Carolina State Board of Elections has voted that digital identifications from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students and staff can be used to vote, despite a lawsuit from Republican groups who argue that state law allows only physical IDs.
