Georgia state senators push change to hand-marked paper ballots — again

Georgia state senators are taking another stab at ditching the state’s touchscreen voting system and replacing it with paper ballots filled out by hand.

A sweeping proposal passed by the Senate Ethics Committee on Monday would require switching to preprinted, hand-marked paper ballots scanned by machines, end county- and municipality-wide in-person early voting, and overhaul how the state conducts election audits. It’s unclear how much the dramatic changes would cost to implement.

Backed by key Senate Republicans, it reaffirms the position of influential senators to switch to paper ballots, although the House has taken no action on another Senate paper ballot proposal already in the House.

Georgia officials have until July to stop counting votes with QR codes. Lawmakers have until the end of the legislative session next month to figure out how to comply with the deadline.

“We are on a collision course as it relates to how we vote in Georgia elections,” said state Sen. Greg Dolezal, a candidate for lieutenant governor.

The measure must pass the Senate by Friday to stay alive for the rest of the legislative session.

The looming QR code deadline has concerned local election officials, who say it’s already too late to change to a new system before the midterms without causing significant administrative disruptions.

Georgians will vote in the May primaries with countywide early voting and touchscreens. But come the November general election, voters would use paper ballots bubbled in by hand and be limited to one assigned early voting site if Senate Bill 568 passes.

Democrats fear the overhaul to early voting would cause confusion among voters.

“It’s mass confusion on a fast track for no reason,” said state Sen. Kim Jackson, who suggested pushing back the deadline to eliminate QR codes to 2027.

The Stone Mountain Democrat said that the state’s elections are already safe and secure.

“This is all a fraud. This is all a farce, and it’s ultimately about stealing an election in the future,” she said.

Paper ballot proponents who support the measure, many of them conservatives, packed the hearing room on Monday.

“Georgia is better than a banana republic with rigged elections that undermine democracy and freedom,” said David Cross, who opposes Georgia’s touchscreens.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for paper ballots, fueling distrust among his supporters for Georgia’s touchscreen system in the wake of his narrow 2020 loss.

Critics of the state’s current system point to known cybersecurity vulnerabilities and say that the system obscures votes in computer-readable QR codes, which leaves voters uncertain about whether their ballots will be accurately tallied.

Election officials say those vulnerabilities have never been exploited during an election.

The effort to switch to paper ballots comes as Trump has sought significant overhauls to elections nationwide and continued to make baseless claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him. He’s suggested the FBI will find fraud in Fulton County’s 2020 election and called on Republicans to “nationalize” voting. And a recently circulated draft executive order would grant extraordinary presidential power over voting.

Under SB 568, the state would be required to conduct hand-counted audits for all federal and most statewide races, which would be overseen by the State Election Board. And instead of auditing a sample of ballots for a contest, it would require counting all ballots.

Bartow County Elections Director Joseph Kirk said it already takes his county up to 12 hours in big elections to hand count one race.

“So if we’re looking at that many races, we need to extend the certification period so we have time to do it,” he said.

Election recounts can be conducted at the request of a candidate if the victory margin is within half a percentage point. The measure allows for recounts within a 1% margin, which could lead to more frequent recounts.