Georgia election officials are requiring poll workers to tally the number of ballots by hand. The State Election Board voted 3-2 on Friday to approve the new rule, going against the advice of the state attorney general’s office,

Georgia State Election Board approves rule mandating hand-counting of paper ballots, defying advice from officials.

Three Donald Trump loyalist Georgia State Election Board members adopted a contentious rule Friday requiring the hand counting of paper ballots cast during the upcoming Nov. 5 Election Day despite warnings from county election directors that it could lead to more delays with reporting results this fall.

Three Republican board members who were praised by former President Donald Trump during a rally last month in Atlanta voted to approve the measure, while the lone Democrat on the board and the nonpartisan chair voted to reject it.

Georgia 's State Election Board on Friday voted to approve a new rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand after voting is completed, a change that critics worry could delay the reporting of election night results.

The new rule requires that the number of paper ballots — not the number of votes — be counted at each polling place by three separate poll workers until all three counts are the same.

The pleas from dozens of Georgia election board leaders and staffers on Friday weren’t enough to dissuade State Election Board members from approving a new rule requiring poll workers to hand count ballots on Election Day in November.

The State Election Board considered nearly a dozen new rules on Friday — three-and-a-half weeks from the start of early voting.