The Secretary of State of Georgia on Thursday spoke out against the changes to the election rules pending before the State Election Commission, particularly rejecting the proposal to count votes by hand at polling stations on election night.

At a July meeting, the committee made a proposal that would require three poll workers to count ballots at polling places on election night to ensure they match the number recorded by voting machines. That proposal has been posted for public comment, and the committee is scheduled to vote on whether to adopt it on Monday.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top election official, called the effort “misguided” and said it would delay the announcement of election results and pose risks to evidence review processes.

“Activists seeking to push through last-minute changes to election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and place a burden on election workers,” Raffensperger said in a press release.

The state election board has received a barrage of rule proposals in recent months, many of them coming from activists associated with former President Donald Trump, who continues to complain without evidence that widespread voter fraud cost him victory in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly criticized Raffensperger for his steadfast defense of the integrity of that election.

Three of the five board members are Republicans, whom Trump mentioned and praised by name at a campaign rally in Atlanta last month.

Sharlene Alexander, a member of the Fayette County Elections and Voter Registration Board, suggested having three poll workers hand-count the ballots and sort them into batches of 50 until all are counted and the three workers arrive at the same total. If that number does not match the numbers entered in the voter check-in system, electronic voting machines and scanner summary forms, the election official must determine the reason for the discrepancy and correct it if possible.

Alexander did not immediately respond to a voicemail, text message and email Thursday seeking comment on Raffensperger’s opposition to manually counting ballots at polling places.

Alexander wrote in her proposal that such manual counting of ballots was a “longstanding tradition” in Fayette County and elsewhere. It ended, she wrote, when Blake Evans, elections director for the Secretary of State’s office, sent an email to county election officials in October 2022 urging them not to conduct the manual count.

“I know many counties have received an email requesting that poll workers hand count ballots at polling places on election night. Deciding that poll workers hand count ballots at each polling place on election night is not something your poll workers should be doing,” Evans wrote in the email Alexander attached to her proposal.

Citing sections of Georgia state law and state election department regulations governing the handling of ballots at polling places on election night, Evans wrote, “To ensure maximum security for the votes cast, poll workers should not prolong the process of removing ballots from ballot boxes and sealing them in shipping containers.”

In a press release Thursday, the secretary of state called members of the state election board “unelected bureaucrats who have never conducted an election” and said they “appear to reject the advice” of anyone who has ever conducted an election.

The council shall consist of five members: one member appointed by the state House of Representatives, one member elected by the state Senate, one member each from the Republican and Democratic parties, and a nonpartisan chair elected by the General Assembly or by the Governor when the General Assembly is not in session due to a vacancy.

Spokespeople for Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and Speaker of the State House Jon Burns did not immediately respond to requests for comment.