State Election Board meets as Georgia faces an election crisis
Georgia’s State Election Board meets in Dawsonville Wednesday amid a looming deadline set by the Republican-controlled General Assembly that could soon make counting votes with the state’s current system illegal.
Lawmakers adjourned for the regular legislative session earlier this month without addressing the deadline set in 2024 to remove QR codes to count ballots by July 1. Gov. Brian Kemp is weighing whether to call lawmakers back to Atlanta to address the matter.
Meanwhile, the State Election Board could take matters into its own hands. A proposal before the board would trigger a switch to paper ballots filled out by hand in place of the current system of touchscreen machines.
The state board, controlled by a Republican majority, could consider a petition from election security advocates that would temporarily mandate all 159 counties switch to hand-marked paper ballots as the primary voting method starting in July.
It could mean that voters cast ballots by filling out paper ballots by hand in the crucial November midterms, when voters will choose a new governor and vote on U.S. House and Senate seats.
Counties would still be permitted to use touchscreens to accommodate people with disabilities.
State law already requires using paper ballots as a backup if the touchscreen voting system is determined to be impossible or impracticable to use.
Under the proposal, counties with multiple early in-person voting sites and at least 20 ballot permutations could print ballots on demand at polling locations to accommodate different configurations of districts and races.
If the board chooses to advance the proposal, it would kick off a mandatory 30-day public comment period before the board could consider approving the petition.
The board previously rejected a petition that would define when the state could use the backup system in place of Georgia’s voting touchscreens. State Election Board Vice Chair Janice Johnston said it was the duty of the Legislature to figure out when a backup system can be used.
But without a legislative solution in sight, the latest proposal might gain traction with the board.
Last month, the board approved a resolution urging lawmakers “to move to hand-marked paper ballots as soon as practicable.”
The board hasn’t shied away from controversy in the past. The Georgia Supreme Court invalidated a number of contentious rules passed in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. The state’s highest court ruled that the appointed board cannot create new rules that conflict with or go beyond state laws passed by elected lawmakers.
Lawmakers debated a bill that would have pushed back the deadline to eliminate the QR codes and another that would have triggered a switch to paper ballots, but neither made it to Kemp’s desk. Now, election officials are in limbo about how to count votes after the primaries.
The debate over voting machines and QR codes arose from Trump’s narrow 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his loyalists have never conceded his defeat, and since then, Trump and his allies have pushed to do away with Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines.
Without further action taken on the matter, it could be left up to the courts to decide how elections will be conducted after the July deadline.
Wednesday’s meeting will be streamed online on the board’s YouTube channel.
About the Author
Caleb Groves is a general assignment reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's politics team and a Kennesaw State University graduate.
