Former President Donald Trump is obviously a supporter of increased election integrity at the state level, and he was a fan of recent ballot security rules passed last month by Georgia's Republican-led State Election Board.

Unfortunately, a judge ruled last week to block those new rules from taking effect, and now the Georgia Supreme Court has left that block in place after declining a Republican request to rule swiftly on an appeal, Fox News reported.

That decision will undoubtedly both infuriate Trump and please Vice President Kamala Harris, who along with her fellow Democrats opposed the GOP efforts to make Georgia's election results more secure and transparent to the public.

New election rules blocked by county judge

The Associated Press reported that the Georgia State Election Board passed a slate of new election integrity rules in August and September that were immediately challenged by lawsuits and were blocked last week by a county judge who declared them to be "illegal, unconstitutional, and void."

Arguably the most controversial of those new rules was a requirement that three separate poll workers in each county hand count all ballots to ensure the accuracy of ballot tabulation machines. The rules also required county election officials to, in the event of any irregularities, conduct a "reasonable inquiry" and "examine all election-related documentation" before certifying their election results.

In addition, the Board's new rules also included requirements for individuals dropping off absentee ballots to show identification; for after-hours video surveillance of ballot drop boxes; an expansion of areas for poll watchers to observe ballot tabulations; and daily public updates from the state on the numbers of votes cast during the early voting period.

Justices won't rule quickly or restore new rules before the election

Following the county judge's ruling, the Georgia Republican Party and the Republican National Committee filed an appeal and urged the Georgia Supreme Court to move expeditiously to reverse the lower court and allow the new election integrity rules to be put in place, per Fox News.

However, in a unanimous one-page decision on Tuesday, the justices agreed to take up and consider the appeal on its merits but declined to expedite the case or remove the lower court's blockade against the new rules.

That means that regardless of whether the high court ultimately rules in favor of the Republicans and the new ballot security measures, those rules won't be put in place ahead of the impending election next month.

GOP finds court's decision "supremely disappointing"

Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia GOP, responded to the state Supreme Court's decision with an X post that said, "Objecting to reasonable access for poll watchers, access to publicly available voter data, reasonable inquiries by election board members to confirm the integrity of the election, and confirming the machine count using poll book records and/or the physical ballots is unimaginably stupid and damaging to public confidence in what is expected to be a closely contested election."

"It is supremely disappointing to observe yet another failure of our judicial system to expeditiously resolve critical questions about our elections process," the party chair continued. "Georgia judges have had no problem expediting other issues, for example supporting the efforts of Georgia Democrats to kick candidates off the ballot."

He added, "The solution for Georgians who have had enough of this sort of thing is to turn out in record numbers to elect Donald Trump and the Republican ticket. We will press our appeal next year and hope for sanity to prevail."

Harris campaign, Georgia Dems revel in court victory

In contrast to the Republican laments about the Georgia Supreme Court's decision, Fox News reported separately that Georgia Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign issued a joint statement that praised the high court and mocked former President Trump and his allies on the State Election Board.

"Donald Trump and his MAGA 'pit bulls' in Georgia have tried to create chaos in our elections and sow doubt in the result, but again and again, Democrats have stood strong to protect the votes of all Georgians," the statement said. "After more than 1 million Georgians have already voted, today’s ruling means millions more will be able to do so knowing that Trump won’t be able to interfere with the election results when he loses again."