Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is celebrating after a Georgia judge temporarily blocked a rule that would have forced election officials to hand count ballots after they have been machine-tabulated.

“From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it,” a joint statement to several media outlets read.

“We will continue fighting to ensure that voters can cast their ballot knowing it will count.”

The brief comments were released by Georgia Democratic Party Chair Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., Democratic National Committee acting Co-Executive Director Monica Guardiola and Harris-Walz Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks.

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The joint statement lauding the ruling is a reflection of how lockstep state and national Democrats have been in opposing the new measure.

Slated to go into effect Oct. 22, the rule would have required three county elections officials at each polling place to manually count the ballots cast — not tally the votes themselves — after ballots were tabulated by a machine.

It was passed in a 3-2 vote by the State Elections Board (SEB), which is now facing several lawsuits against the measure and other changes by the GOP-majority board.

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney issued the ruling. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)

Democrats have argued that the rule was created to purposefully sow division and uncertainty in the presidential election in Georgia — which was decided by less than 12,000 votes in 2020.

In Tuesday night’s ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney did not take issue with the intent of the rule itself but criticized the SEB’s decision to make changes so close to Election Day.

He noted that no training had been implemented or developed to prepare election workers for the new procedure, nor had funds been allocated for that purpose.

“The administrative chaos that will — not may — ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly,” McBurney wrote.

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Georgia Republican Party officials and allies of former President Trump held up the rule as a fair guardrail to increase voter confidence in the election process.

McBurney wrote that the rule “on paper” appeared consistent with the SEB’s goal to ensure fair and legal elections but added any new measure “that allows for our paper ballots — the only tangible proof of who voted for whom — to be handled multiple times by multiple people following an exhausting Election Day all before they are securely transported to the official tabulation center does not contribute to lessening the tension or boosting the confidence of the public for this election.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the ruling.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vowed to make sure the presidential election in the commonwealth would be fair, safe and accurate in response to a lawsuit by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over his efforts to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls.

The DOJ is suing Virginia for purging noncitizens from the voting rolls, which Youngkin vowed to fight during an appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity” Monday night. 

“The Department of Justice is suing the Commonwealth of Virginia because someone who self-identified as a noncitizen is being removed from the voter roll unless they prove that they are a citizen and affirm so,” Youngkin said. 

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In the lawsuit, the DOJ is claiming that Youngkin violated the National Voter Registration Act with an executive order that required the election commissioner to regularly update the state’s voter lists to remove individuals who have been “identified as noncitizens” and did not respond to a request to verify their citizenship in 14 days.

Virginia has announced that it has removed more than 6,000 individuals between Jan. 2022 and July 2024.

In a memo obtained by Fox News Digital, the governor’s office called the DOJ’s move an “unprecedented lawsuit” that targets the state “for appropriately enforcing a Virginia law, signed by then-Gov. Tim Kaine in 2006, that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls – a process that begins when an individual themselves indicates they are a noncitizen during a DMV transaction.”

“That bill was signed in 2006 and it requires us to use DMV data where people self-identify as non-citizens to then go through a process of removing them from the voter rolls if they’re on the voter rolls. And guess what? That’s exactly what we’ve been doing, it’s been happening for 18 years,” Youngkin said. “Democratic governors, even Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam, used this process all the way up through into October and that’s exactly what we’re doing in Virginia today.”

He explained that if an individual walks into the DMV and identifies themselves as a noncitizen, but are somehow, either by accident or by purpose, registered to vote and end up on the voter roll, they go through the process of notifying the registrar that if the person cannot affirm their citizenship in 14 days, they’re taken off the voter roll. 

“This is the process that the Department of Justice, 25 days before a presidential election, turns around and says: ‘You must stop doing this,’ and that is unbelievable to me,” Younkin said. 

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Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“To me, this is unprecedented, and I think it represents a Department of Justice that is trying to achieve something other than fair and free elections,” he added.

Youngkin said Virginia removed 80,000 dead people from voter rolls in 2023 and, since he has been in office, there have been 6,300 circumstances where somebody walked into the DMV, identified themselves as a non-citizen and ended up on the voter roll. 

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

A local Democratic Party chair in North Carolina resigned this week after he was arrested for allegedly ripping out and stealing roadside signs supporting former President Donald Trump. 

Lowell Simon, the now former chair of the Moore County Democratic Party, who is also running for North Carolina House in November, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor larceny of political signs. 

The Moore County Democratic Party announced in a Facebook post on Monday that 68-year-old Simon had resigned as chair “following recent allegations and arrest related to the theft of political signs.” 

The Moore County Sheriff’s Office said a deputy working in the West End area observed Simon removing campaign signs from the roadside along Seven Lakes Drive at approximately 5:25 p.m. Thursday. 

“The deputy, who was responding to an unrelated call at the time, later followed up at Simon’s residence, where the signs were found in his vehicle,” according to the office. “Simon admitted to removing the signs, which were then recovered and returned to their original owner.” 

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A warrant for Simon’s arrest was issued Saturday. He was released “under a written promise to appear in court,” according to the sheriff’s office, and his first court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 30. 

“While we appreciate the hard work and dedication he has shown to the Democratic Party and the community, the Moore County Democratic Party cannot and will not condone the tampering of political signs or any other illegal activity,” the local party wrote on Facebook. “Mr. Simon has offered an apology for his actions, as well as his resignation, both of which have been accepted by the MCDP.”

WRAL, the outlet that interviewed Simon over the phone after his arrest, said the local chair complained that signs he had already placed in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, the state’s current attorney general running against Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, were obstructed by new signs later set up in front of them that read: “Trump low taxes, Kamala high taxes.” 

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“My worse angels got the better of me and I removed the signs,” Simon said. “I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t do it in the stealth of night or anything. I did it when it was five o’clock in the afternoon.”

Former President Trump supporters hold up signs during a campaign rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame in Asheboro on Aug. 21, 2024. (Peter Zay/AFP via Getty Images)

“We believe in the importance of freedom of expression and speech, and hope that local law enforcement will continue to enforce such laws that protect those freedoms fairly and without bias across party lines,” the local party added. “As we move forward, our focus will remain on electing Democrats up and down the ballot in this critical election. Together, we are committed to promoting the values of justice, fairness, and freedom that our Party holds dear, and we look forward to building a better future for all in Moore County.”

Last week, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields, a Republican, also issued a reminder to the public after Simon’s arrest “that the removal or theft of campaign signs is a violation of North Carolina General Statute § 136-32(e), which protects the lawful placement of these signs during election periods.”