Before election system changes, lawmakers should beware of conspiracy theories
Imagine changing the rules of the Super Bowl at halftime — not during the offseason, after careful review — but in the middle of the biggest game of the year.
That’s effectively what some lawmakers are considering for Georgia’s election system: significant operational changes between the May primaries and the November general election.
Elections are not abstract policy debates. They are complex logistical operations run by county officials who must train poll workers, test equipment, educate voters and administer voting across thousands of precincts.
I served in the past two secretary of state administrations and worked extensively with the General Assembly to draft and pass legislation to make our elections more secure and efficient.
What’s clear is that major system changes on a compressed timeline risk longer lines, increased litigation, administrative confusion and diminished voter confidence — even when undertaken with good intentions.
Georgians want to vote quickly and securely
Despite what a committed and loud group of activists would have you believe, research shows the vast majority of Georgia voters, Republicans and Democrats alike, are happy with the current system.
Research from the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs following the 2022 and 2024 elections and new data from a statewide survey commissioned by RightCount — a nonprofit that conducts research and educates fellow citizens around election integrity issues — all show the same result. And the data is clear:
- After the 2022 election, 95.5% of voters rated their experience as “excellent” or “good.”
- That number increased to 96.2% following the 2024 election.
- When asked specifically about Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines that print a paper ballot, 85% of respondents rated their experience positively.
- Only 25% of likely voters — and just 35% of GOP primary voters — support switching to hand-marked paper ballots before the 2026 election.
It is rare to find an 80-20 issue in modern politics. This is one of them.
What Georgia voters want is to cast their vote quickly and securely, without waiting in lines, and they want results reported accurately and quickly. But making changes right before an election often has unforeseen consequences that are almost always negative for the voter experience.
Currently, Georgia’s voting system relies on touchscreen ballot marking devices that print out a paper ballot. That paper ballot contains both the printed names of the selected candidates and a QR code, which is scanned by an optical scanner to tabulate the votes. But the printed text on the ballot is what gets audited to confirm the results and what governs as the official ballot in case of a dispute.
Activists and some in the Legislature want to move to hard-marked ballots, and they argue Georgia has to make that significant change right now. Extremists from both sides really dislike voting machines — in fact, conspiracies about voting machines in Georgia first came to prominence with leftist activists complaining about the 2016 and 2018 elections. But those claims have never held water, and they still don’t.
The push to move to hard-marked ballots on such an abbreviated time frame is puzzling. Georgia’s current voting system is popular with voters and consistently ranked as one of the best by nonpartisan groups across the ideological spectrum (Elections Performance Index, Election Integrity Scorecard, The Heritage Foundation).
Rejection of voting system precedes 2020 election
Since the current system is overwhelmingly popular with voters on both sides of the electorate, why then is the General Assembly considering spending what will end up being tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase new equipment and risking election chaos?
Some point to the lingering controversies over the 2020 presidential election, where Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump in Georgia. But many of the activists trying to convince the General Assembly they have to move fast and break things have been pushing for hand-marked ballots for decades, so it’s chronologically impossible the 2020 election is the reason.
It’s just a convenient excuse that activists are using to push their long-held policy preference. The activists include people like Garland Favorito, who filed a lawsuit in 2006 challenging Georgia’s previous touchscreen voting machines, and Marilyn Marks, who’s Fair Fight-funded organization cast doubt on the legitimacy of Gov. Brian Kemp’s victory over Stacey Abrams in 2018.
The same activists pushing the Legislature to act with great haste in enacting hand-marked ballots have also raised doubts about the reliability of electronically scanning ballots. Will they be crying for hand-counted ballots next even though that is consistently shown to be less accurate and slower than machine-counting?
If the General Assembly wishes to transition to hand-marked ballots, it has the authority to do so. But that transition should be deliberate, adequately funded and coordinated closely with the county officials responsible for implementation. It should occur with sufficient time for voter education, equipment procurement, poll worker training and careful testing.
When a system is functioning well and enjoys overwhelming bipartisan voter approval, the burden should rest on those proposing rapid change to demonstrate not only theoretical improvement but also operational necessity.
Georgia’s elections are secure, transparent and widely trusted by voters across the political spectrum. Major structural changes deserve careful study and thoughtful implementation, not a rush decision in the shadow of an approaching general election.
Prudence, not panic, should guide election policy.
Ryan Germany was formerly general counsel to two Georgia secretaries of state: now Gov. Brian Kemp and current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He is a state director for RightCount Georgia.
