Burt Jones proposes paper ballot fallback in Georgia election mess
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- One of Atlanta’s most bitter political battles returns.
- In a new Politico interview, Gov. Brian Kemp makes a few things unmistakably clear.
- Georgia’s budget surplus becomes a defining contrast in the governor’s race.
Election mess
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is turning up the pressure in Georgia’s elections standoff — and signaling a possible way to avoid a special legislative session.
In a letter to the State Election Board on Tuesday morning, Jones blamed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — his rival in the GOP race for governor — for what he called a failure to prepare for the July 1 deadline that bars the use of QR codes in vote tabulation. Lawmakers set that deadline two years ago but never passed a bill to address it.
Rather than backing Raffensperger’s push for lawmakers to return to Atlanta and delay the deadline, Jones is urging the board to immediately review whether Georgia’s current touchscreen voting system can legally remain in use after July 1.
And if it can’t, he’s proposing a dramatic fallback: directing counties to use Georgia’s existing backup, a hand-marked paper ballot system, for the November general election.
“As a temporary measure, the backup solution provided by current law is both workable and preferable to the current system,” he wrote.
The move comes as the board prepares to meet today in North Georgia. And it gives Kemp another option as he weighs whether to call lawmakers back for a special session that could upend campaign calendars just weeks before the May 19 primary.
Raffensperger, a leading defender of the state’s voting machines, said the July deadline is the state Legislature’s problem.
“They never funded anything,” he told our AJC colleague, Caleb Groves. “It’s the height of irresponsibility.”
Things to know
Good morning! Senate Conservatives Fund has endorsed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins’ Republican U.S. Senate campaign.
Here are three other things to know for today:
- Vice President JD Vance went to Athens on Tuesday as part of a Turning Point USA tour to energize young voters. But young people there had deep concerns about President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, the AJC’s Fletcher Page reports.
- U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff broke Georgia’s first-quarter fundraising record, Greg Bluestein writes.
- With sex scandals roiling both parties in Washington, a newly passed measure in Georgia dubbed the “Epstein amendment” could bring new accountability to lawmakers in Georgia, Patricia Murphy writes.
Buckhead redux
One of the most explosive political fights to grip Atlanta in recent years made a return Tuesday night.
At a Leadership Atlanta forum packed with civic leaders who helped beat back the Buckhead secession movement, former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan leaned directly into the issue to draw an implicit contrast with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in the Democratic governor’s race.
The effort to split Buckhead from Atlanta — fueled by a spike in violent crime during the pandemic amid Bottoms’ term and championed by some Republicans under the Gold Dome — became one of the city’s most bitter recent political battles.
Duncan, then the state’s No. 2 Republican, ultimately emerged as one of the most powerful GOP voices to halt it.
“When violent crime swept through Buckhead and civil unrest swept through our streets of Atlanta like I’ve never seen in my life, you’ve got a choice,” he said. “You can either politicize those situations and dive into partisan corners, or you can try to get the problem solved and build a consensus.”
Duncan pointed to the bipartisan coalition he joined to boost police hiring, training and equipment. And he praised Mayor Andre Dickens for opening a new Buckhead police precinct soon after succeeding Bottoms.
“It’s not about running away from problems,” Duncan said. “It’s running in to understand those problems.”
Bottoms, of course, staunchly opposed the secession movement, too. She highlighted her own public safety record, touting what she said was the largest pay increase for police and firefighters in city history, along with her role jump-starting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.
“We created affordable housing specifically designated for public safety personnel,” she said, “but also we need to hold them accountable by looking at all of our policies across the state.”
Kemp’s take
Kemp made a few things unmistakably clear in his interview with Politico’s Jonathan Martin at the Masters. He’s all in on Derek Dooley’s U.S. Senate bid. He talks to Trump regularly despite their tortured past. And he believes Republicans are heading into a “tough cycle” in the midterm.
He also maintained a studied neutrality in the GOP governor’s race.
Kemp has made clear in prior interviews with the AJC that he is not yet endorsing in the race to succeed him, and he didn’t change course with Martin.
He pointed to the “great working relationship” he has with Jones and praised billionaire rival Rick Jackson as a longtime donor with a “great story.”
Then he volunteered something notable:
“I’ve kind of felt like, for really two years now, that race and the Senate race were ripe for political outsiders, especially somebody that could self-fund.”
That’s not an endorsement. But it does suggest Kemp sees Jackson as someone who could fill the gap Republicans face this cycle: an outsider running against an establishment favorite in a turbulent year.
Burns’ endorsement
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns endorsed Republican Fred “Bubba” Longgrear on Tuesday for state schools superintendent, snubbing GOP incumbent Richard Woods who is seeking a fourth term.
And this morning, House Education Committee Chair Chris Erwin and Senate Education and Youth Chair Billy Hickman both announced their support of Longgrear.
It’s rare for Georgia’s top Republican leaders to openly back a primary challenger against an incumbent from their own party. But frustration with Woods has been building for months, particularly after lawmakers pressed him during the 2026 session over stagnant test scores.
Just 35% of Georgia students reached grade-level proficiency or higher last year in English/Language Arts.
For Burns, the stakes are especially high. The speaker made the sweeping literacy bill now awaiting Kemp’s signature the cornerstone of his policy agenda — legislation that would place literacy coaches in every elementary school statewide and reshape early reading instruction.
His endorsement makes clear he wants a new team in place to carry it out.
“Georgia has made serious commitments to improving educational outcomes for students across our state,” Burns said. “Bubba Longgrear understands both the responsibility and the urgency of that work.”
Longgrear said the state superintendent’s office “cannot operate on autopilot while major reforms are underway.”
“Georgia deserves leadership in this office that is visible, engaged and fully committed to the work every day,” he said.
Surplus politics
Georgia’s roughly $14.6 billion budget surplus is quickly becoming a defining contrast in the governor’s race. That was clear during a Leadership Atlanta forum Tuesday at Georgia Tech.
Top Democrats offered a strikingly similar broad vision: stop stockpiling cash and start spending it on health care, schools and economic relief. But each contender put a different stamp on where the money should go first.
- Bottoms framed the question through the lens of uncertainty, warning Georgia may soon need to plug holes left by Trump administration cuts. Her top priorities are to finance Medicaid expansion, stabilize rural hospitals and backfill gaps in education funding.
- Business executive Clark Dean, the only Republican who accepted the civic group’s invitation, largely sidestepped specific spending commitments and pitched a business-minded overhaul of government. His focus was less on where to spend the surplus and more on reducing inefficiency, cutting bureaucracy and stretching taxpayer dollars further.
- Duncan promised an aggressive first 100 days. Alongside Medicaid expansion and boosting education funding, Duncan said he would direct roughly $1.7 billion in spending toward a “jump-start fund” for housing, food assistance and antipoverty programs. He also stressed his relationships with Republicans as key to moving legislation.
- Former state Sen. Jason Esteves cast the surplus as evidence of misplaced priorities, arguing Georgia has been “hoarding tax dollars” while families struggle. He would mine the surplus to expand Medicaid, tackle maternal mortality and make a major early-childhood push.
- Former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond zeroed in almost entirely on education, saying his first move would be to fully fund Georgia’s complicated school funding formula and overhaul it to better account for poverty.
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we break down the speeches and themes from the Democrats’ annual Carter-Lewis dinner over the weekend.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Who’s running?
A new Democratic primary poll for lieutenant governor suggests former state Sen. Nabilah Parkes has a narrow early edge over state Sen. Josh McLaurin. But the bigger headline may be how few voters are paying attention to the race.
The survey of likely Democratic primary voters by Chris Huttman of 20-20 Insight shows Parkes at 13%, ahead of McLaurin at 6% and business owner Richard Wright at 1%. But a staggering 80% remain undecided, an eye-popping number that underscores just how undefined the down-ballot contest remains.
That level of uncertainty is far higher than what recent polling has shown in the governor’s race, where undecideds have generally hovered around 30-40%.
Fuller’s first day
With his children standing behind him on the U.S. House floor, U.S. Rep. Clay Fuller was sworn in to an abbreviated term Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, the dean of Georgia’s congressional delegation, said he looked forward to working with the Republican from Lookout Mountain on issues where they have common interests, including supporting the military and bringing resources to rural Georgia.
Fuller, in a short welcome speech, said he also would be looking for areas of common ground, even across the aisle.
“To the hardworking people of Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, you have sent a warrior to Congress,” he said. “And I can’t wait to fight for you each and every day. To my Democrat colleagues, I look forward to working with you.”
Today in Washington
- Trump has no public events on his schedule.
- First lady Melania Trump will participate in a roundtable on foster care initiatives with members of the House Ways and Means Committee.
- The House will consider legislation reauthorizing warrantless surveillance.
- The Senate could vote on a war powers resolution to limit Trump for making further strikes in Iran.
Cash crash
Republican neurosurgeon Dr. John Cowan plans to report $1.74 million for his campaign for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, including a hefty $1.5 million loan from the candidate.
Cowan is already putting it to work, with aides telling us that a $500,000 media buy began last week — an early attempt to gain ground in the northwest Georgia seat.
Cowan is squaring off against Republican strategist Rob Adkerson and Public Service Commissioner Tricia Pridemore in one of Georgia’s four open U.S. House seats.
Shoutout
Today’s birthday
- Ed Hula, a communications expert who formerly worked for the Georgia Chamber and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Vance’s trip to Athens generated headlines, but not a huge crowd. Page snapped a photo from the back of the arena showing the sparse turnout, which quickly went viral.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
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