A new Georgia election rule that would require a hand count of ballots on election night will not take effect before November’s contest, a state judge ruled.

In a decision late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney agreed to block the rule’s application, writing that the public is “not disserved by pressing pause.”

“This election season is fraught; memories of January 6 have not faded away, regardless of one’s view of that date’s fame or infamy,” McBurney wrote in an 8-page ruling. “Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.”

The rule, passed by the Republican State Election Board, was set to go into effect Oct. 22, just two weeks before the election, and after early voting in the state is underway.

Under the rule, three poll workers at each facility would have been required to count the physical ballots – not votes – “separately” and “independently” in stacks of 50 until all three counts matched. The hand count would be completed on election night unless a scanner had more than........

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