Lawmakers in Georgia made the first step toward replacing the state’s touchscreen voting system with hand-printed, paper ballots.
Instead of using handheld computers that write out paper ballots, a bill proposed on Tuesday would involve about all Georgian voters to bubble in their choices at polling places.
Senate Republicans may vote on the bill on Wednesday, but politicians don’t intend to switch away from smartphones right away. Senate members said the bill’s last vote does not take place until 2026 with just over a month left in this year’s parliamentary period.
On Tuesday, liberals who voted in favor of the idea gathered for a hearing to discuss the proposal. Many of them were wearing T-shirts that read” Paper Ballots Please.”
Autumn Miller, a poll worker for Fulton County, told the council,” With hand-marked paper ballots, citizens can clearly see what they have marked on the ballot and inserted into the tabulator.”
Dominion Voting System has been using Georgia’s current electoral technology since 2020, according to the state’s voter registration office. districts used a variety of votes, from hand-marked paper votes to wheel machines, up until Georgia started using all-electronic voting machines in 2002.
According to the election systems firm Verified Voting, about 70 % of voters global now cast manually-printed paper ballots.
President Donald Trump has frequently called for paper ballots in order to remove the Georgia election system that was in place when he just lost the election of 2020.
Trump signed a comprehensive executive order to overhaul election procedures while lawmakers debated policy. Voters must supply documentation stating they are people, according to the purchase, and ballots must be turned in by Election Day. After the 2020 election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was demonized by Trump, applauded the decree.
Voters are criticized for Georgia’s voting system because it uses a system to process their ballots and obscures them with computer-readable Barcode codes, leaving them unsure whether their ballot will be counted properly.
However, those who oppose switching voting systems claim that the smartphones are accurate, user-friendly, and allow for document ballots, audits, and recounts.
” Adding more regulations will not satisfy those who are persuaded our elections are never safe and our elections are not accurate,” said Michael Beach, an associate surveys manager from DeKalb County. If we don’t stop pandering to them, conspiracy theories will always come up about the next method.
Hand-marked paper votes may be Georgia’s primary election approach, with trackpads still accessible to voters with disabilities.
Ballots had been printed on require at early election locations to hold various races and districts, but they could also become preprinted in smaller vote day precincts where most voters will receive the same ballot.
The cost of switching election methods was not immediately known. For each of Georgia’s 2, 600 election places, it may cost millions of dollars to purchase on-demand vote printing.
Georgia spent more than$ 100 million on voting equipment in 2019 compared to its prior spending.
Republican from Sylvania and the author of Senate Bill 214, state senator Max Burns, said,” It’s outlived its important life.” This policy” traces a course to a better digital surroundings,” according to the bill’s author.
Republican state senator from Atlanta Jason Esteves expressed concern that voters would not support a new election method, either.
Esteves remarked,” I don’t want to be ok with theories about vote on demand in two, three, or five years.”
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2025.
Tribune Content Agency, LLC distributed.
