'Illegal, unconstitutional and void': Georgia judge strikes down new election rules after legal fights

A Georgia judge struck down several rules recently passed by the State Elections Board (SEB) Wednesday, measures that were a subject of fierce debate between Trump and Harris surrogates in the key battleground.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox ruled the new provisions "illegal, unconstitutional and void" in an opinion released Wednesday evening, according to multiple outlets.

It comes hours after he weighed two lawsuits related to the rules, one led by the Georgia Democratic Party and a second by civil rights groups that included current and former GOP state officials.

One of the measures, a requirement for all ballots to be hand counted by three county election officials after they had been machine tabulated to ensure the totals match, has become a political lightening rod in recent weeks.

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That rule was temporarily blocked in a separate ruling Tuesday night challenging the SEB’s new measures. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney did not take issue with the rule’s intent but argued it would be untenable at this late stage. 

Cox’s ruling invalidates that measure, while also invalidating a rule directing county officials to conduct a "reasonable inquiry" before certifying election results and giving them the ability "to examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections."

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Cox also blocked new signature and photo ID requirements for people dropping off absentee ballots for others.

The rules were passed last month in a 3-2 vote by the Republican majority on the elections board.

Democrats had accused the GOP officials of trying to sow doubt and chaos in the election process, while supporters of the rule changes said they were necessary guardrails to ensure voter confidence.

In the wider ranging of the two cases Wednesday, led by Eternal Vigilance Action, a group founded by former GOP state legislator Scot Turner, the plaintiffs argued the SEB was out of its scope of authority in establishing the new rules.

"Three members of the state election board, kind of like Napoleon, they put a crown on their head and say, ‘We are the emperors of election,’" the plaintiffs’ lawyer said. "No, that is not the way our system of government works."

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But the defendants and supporting groups, including attorneys for the Georgia Republican Party, argued the state’s General Assembly gave the SEB the scope to craft such rules.

"They don't say which one of those statutes should be found unconstitutional because, remember, to rule in favor of the plaintiffs here, you're going to have to find that the General Assembly's grant of authority to the agency was unconstitutional," a lawyer for the GOP said.

"They don't say which one of the three powers we have that they violated. Could be all three of them. Could be one of the three. And if it's a constitutional challenge, you can't have something that's that vague to bring into a court to ask you to declare it to be unconstitutional."

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Both former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns have dedicated significant time and resources to Georgia, which President Biden won by less than 1% in 2020.

Harris’ campaign lauded Tuesday's ruling that blocked the hand-counting ballots rule, declaring, "Our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision."

Fox News Digital reached out to both the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.