The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close.

A Georgia judge blocked the controversial hand count rule that was passed by the state's Republican-led State Election Board from going into effect, finding that the timing of the rule being passed just six weeks before Election Day is "quite wrong.

A county judge in Georgia on Tuesday blocked a new rule passed by the GOP-controlled State Elections Board that would have mandated a hand count of ballots. Judge Robert C.I. McBurney said that such a sweeping change so close to an election,