(Bloomberg) -- For the second day in a row a judge has blocked new rules passed by Georgia’s election board ahead of the November election, declaring that the changes to how ballots are counted and how vote counts are certified are “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”
The rules struck down by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox on Wednesday included a directive to county officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into the election before certifying results and a requirement that poll workers in each precinct hand-count ballots.
Cox’s ruling follows an order the day before from one of his colleagues in Fulton County also blocking the hand-count rule.
Georgia, one of seven battleground states this election, has been a hotbed of litigation over how it will run the election and certify the winner. The board faced a series of lawsuits in recent weeks over new rules the Republican majority voted to adopt over opposition not only from Democrats and voting rights groups, but also certain local election officials and top Republicans in the state.
Cox, who heard arguments earlier on Wednesday, wrote in his decision that the “reasonable inquiry” rule and other contested board actions were unenforceable because they went beyond election processes already spelled out in state law. The state legislature hadn’t delegated power to the board to make new rules, he said.
The board’s opponents contend that the “reasonable inquiry” rule was designed to inject confusion into the process and potentially aid local allies of Donald Trump if it appears he is going to lose the state.
Cox wrote that the rule “adds an additional and undefined step into the certification process” that made it “inconsistent” with existing law.
On the hand-count rule, Cox wrote that various state laws “proscribe the duties of poll officers after the polls close. Hand counting is not among them.”
Cox also blocked rules that gave county election officials “unbounded” access to election-related records, that required a person delivering an absentee ballot to give their signature and show an ID, that mandated video surveillance of ballot drop boxes, and that expanded poll watcher areas.
Lawyers for the state board didn’t immediately return a request for comment. The Republican National Committee and the state’s Republican Party intervened in the case to back the board; an RNC spokesperson also didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The case was brought by a Georgia-based group called Eternal Vigilance Action. The group’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney entered an order temporarily blocking the hand-count rule ahead of November, finding the board had acted too late to enforce it immediately.
McBurney also addressed the certification issue in a separate case on Tuesday, declaring that county election officials have a “mandatory” duty to certify results and cannot substitute their independent judgment.
The “reasonable inquiry” rule is before McBurney in yet another case — brought by the Democratic National Committee — but he has yet to rule.
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