A bill that would fundamentally change how Georgia voters cast their ballots did not pass on Crossover Day, but state lawmakers still have work to do on elections.
The Legislature has less than a month in this year’s session to figure out how to meet a July 1 deadline to stop counting votes using QR codes.
Senate Bill 568 would have done away with Georgia’s voting touchscreens and triggered a switch for almost all voters to preprinted, hand-marked paper ballots and limited early in-person voting. But the Senate fell two votes short of passing the measure.
“While there are some good points to this bill, it’s also deeply flawed,” said state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, who voted to support the measure, saying there was still time to tweak it in the House.
Election officials called the bill “unworkable” and other critics said being assigned to an early voting site would cause voter confusion.
“This bill is too hasty. It does not protect Georgians, and fundamentally it destabilizes our electoral system,” said state Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain.
Currently, all in-person voters use touchscreens to select candidates, which are printed on paper with QR codes and human-readable text. Scanning machines read the QR codes to record votes.
Opponents of Georgia’s voting technology say it remains vulnerable to possible hacks, but election officials say those vulnerabilities have never been exploited during an election. Others are skeptical because the codes obscure votes, leaving voters uncertain about whether their ballots are accurately tallied.
Distrust of Georgia’s voting touchscreens grew in the wake of the 2020 election. President Donald Trump and his supporters have said, without evidence, that voting equipment was to blame for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Three vote tallies, including a hand count audit of every ballot cast, confirmed Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by about 12,000 votes.
That paper ballot proposal is likely dead for this session. However, another Senate bill that calls for paper ballots remains in play in the House to address the looming deadline. The measure could be amended or used as a vehicle to add other election-related changes from SB 568.
Some House lawmakers have signaled support for paper ballots. A House elections study committee issued recommendations calling for Georgia voters to switch to paper ballots on Election Day this year and requiring any ballots cast using Georgia’s touchscreen voting system to be hand-counted.
And a draft measure obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that would create a partial switch to paper ballots was expected to be considered in a House committee in February, but the meeting was abruptly canceled minutes beforehand.
“After many hours of testimony, committee hearings, individual meetings, and extensive research, the House is finalizing a plan to resolve the statutory conflict created by SB 189,” state Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, said Monday. “We expect to introduce that plan very soon.”
Some election officials say it’s already too late to create significant changes before the midterms and that the deadline should be pushed back a year.
The push for paper ballots wasn’t the only proposal that fell short on Crossover Day.
One of state Sen. Greg Dolezal’s proposals sought to enshrine photo ID requirements in the state constitution. Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming who is running for lieutenant governor, billed it as a state version of the SAVE Act under consideration in Congress and backed by Trump.
But Georgia already has a law requiring voters to show their IDs before casting ballots.
State Sen. Randal Mangham, D-Stone Mountain, said the resolution was created “to amplify the lie about noncitizens voting and to provide cover for federal pushes to restrict voting access.”
The amendment failed to get the requisite two-thirds majority to pass.
Not all election-related legislation stalled on Crossover Day.
Senate Bill 423 would require in-state candidates, campaign committees, political action committees and leadership committees to get at least half their campaign donations from Georgia residents.
Candidates and committees that exceed that threshold for out-of-state donations would have to refund the money within 45 days. Violators could face felony charges.
The proposal now awaits action in the House before the end of the 40-day legislative session.
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