Activists continue to push for paper ballots in Georgia ahead of midterms
Dozens of activists packed into the state Capitol on Tuesday, touting their latest report alleging errors in Georgia elections and calling for a switch to hand-marked paper ballots rather than Georgia’s touchscreen voting system.
Among a group of activists on Tuesday holding signs that read “PAPER PLEASE” and “UN-PLUG GA,” was Field Searcy, cofounder of the conservative group Georgians for Truth, which advocates for paper ballots. He claimed state law already on the books would allow the state to ditch Georgia’s touchscreen system.
“We don’t need new laws if we can’t already follow the ones we’ve got,” he said.
Tuesday’s news conference by the paper-ballot activists comes four months before the May 19 primaries for the 2026 midterm elections. There was not much evidence that state leaders backed a switch this year.
Legislative leaders did not attend the event, and Gov. Brian Kemp’s $42.3 billion revised 2026 state budget plan does not include money for a new voting system.
Marilyn Marks, the executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, has sought switching to paper ballots, requesting the State Election Board determine the state’s current voting system impossible or impracticable and switch to paper ballots ahead of the March 10 election to fill a congressional seat recently vacated by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“Georgia law requires voters to be able to know who they are voting for,” she said. “In Georgia’s system, voters cannot know — because the official vote is hidden in a QR code they cannot read.”
State Election Board Chairman John Fervier said he has asked the attorney general’s office to weigh the legality of her request. The board meets Wednesday.
Late last year, the State Election Board voted down a proposal that would create a new pathway where the touchscreen voting system could be eliminated to switch to hand-marked paper ballots. Opponents said the board didn’t have the authority to do it.
As the push for paper ballots continues, lawmakers are weighing how to comply with a looming July deadline to stop tabulating votes with QR codes printed on ballots.
A state House study committee on elections has not issued its recommendations, nor have lawmakers filed any new legislation.
“The study committee and the House Governmental Affairs Committee are diligently evaluating legislative options to ensure compliance with the Legislature’s will and to guarantee that Georgia has the most accurate, trustworthy and secure elections possible,” said state Rep. Victor Anderson, House Governmental Affairs Committee chair.
One proposal that passed the Senate last year and is awaiting action in the House would allow voters the option to bubble in their choices at polling places rather than using a touchscreen.
Kemp’s budget plan may not have money for a new voting system, but it has $5 million for a statewide hand recount of the 2026 vote, similar to one conducted after the 2020 presidential contest.
“The intent really is to confirm the outcome of the contest and to ensure that the correct winners won,” Secretary of State Elections Director Blake Evans told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A hand count would be an additional check of the results, especially in the event of a high-profile 2026 race with tight margins.
The request for another safeguard comes amid the backdrop of the Trump administration’s spotlight on Georgia, a swing state, and its elections ahead of 2026.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state for its unredacted voter rolls and Fulton County for its 2020 ballots and other election records.
For years, President Donald Trump and his allies have claimed that widespread voting fraud in 2020 cost him the state, though numerous investigations found no evidence of such claims and that multiple vote counts upheld Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory.
Recently, Trump even said he should have sent in the National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states during the 2020 election.
About the Author
Caleb Groves is a general assignment reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's politics team and a Kennesaw State University graduate.
