Eternal Vigilance Action, Inc. v. Georgia

In mid-September, Eternal Vigilance Action, Inc., and two Georgia voters challenged State Election Board rules that would allow standardless investigations that were primed to cause delay in certifying the vote. Then, on September 20, just 46 days before the general election, the State Election Board passed another series of rules, including one that would require three poll workers at every precinct to independently hand count the number of ballots cast prior to the ballot boxes being sealed and delivered for tabulation. On September 25, the original plaintiffs amended their complaint to add a challenge to these new rules.

Representing the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Inc., the ACLU, along with ACLU of Georgia, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the law firm, Morgan Lewis, sought to intervene in the case. We specifically challenge the hand counting rule as being inconsistent with Georgia statutes governing the procedures at the close of the polls and beyond the authority of the State Election Board.

Update: On October 16, 2024, the court permanently blocked the hand-counting rule, along with several other disruptive and unlawful changes to election rules that were adopted by the State Election Board. On October 22, 2024, the Supreme Court of Georgia denied an emergency attempt by the Republican National Committee to reverse the court's order.