Georgia House panel backs ballot inspections and fewer voting machines

“It really further ensures that we have citizen-run elections, that we have maximum transparency and we have public verification,” said state Rep. Shaw Blackmon, a Republican from Bonaire.

No one spoke against House Bill 426 before it passed the House Governmental Affairs Committee. The bill also cleared the committee last year but didn’t receive a vote in the House.

The effort to allow ballot inspections is a goal of Republican supporters of Donald Trump and activists who sued because they want to search for counterfeit ballots in the 2020 election, which Trump lost. Election investigators told a judge they couldn’t find any fake ballots, but Trump and his followers have spent more than three years saying the 2020 election was stolen without providing proof.

The committee also approved legislation that would ease the number of voting booths required in each election day precinct in statewide general elections. House Bill 1370 would allow fewer than one voting booth for every 250 voters.

Lines haven’t been a problem on election days in recent years, and county election directors told legislators they want more flexibility to deploy the appropriate amount of voting touchscreens and printers. The worst lines in past Georgia elections occurred during high-traffic days of early voting and the 2020 primary, when some precincts closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Other election-related bills under consideration by the General Assembly would criminalize deepfakes that impersonate candidates to deceive voters, add watermarks to ballots, increase the number of election audits, post ballot pictures online and ban ranked-choice voting.