Georgia is sticking with touchscreen voting machines — for now.
State lawmakers on Tuesday delayed calls to move the state to hand-marked paper ballots in time for the midterms, proposing instead to make the switch for the 2028 elections.
“This bill is necessary because if we do nothing, the electorate and especially our election officials and our election superintendents across the state will not have clarity in how to conduct elections in November of 2026,” said state Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania.
The House Governmental Affairs Committee approved an amended version of Senate Bill 214, a transition from the state’s current touchscreen voting system to a new system, calling for paper ballots in time for the next presidential election. Burns said the new system would be Georgia’s primary voting method, with touchscreens still available for voters with disabilities.
Ballots would be counted by machines.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
If approved by the General Assembly, the bill would answer how lawmakers intend to comply with the looming July deadline to stop counting votes with QR codes currently on the ballots printed from the touchscreen machines. Hand-marked paper ballot proponents have advocated for filling in selections by hand. County election officials say it’s too late for an overhaul of the system this year.
Under the proposal, ballots would be printed on demand at polling locations to accommodate different configurations of districts and races.
State Rep. Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, said lawmakers are working to ensure there’s money in the 2027 budget for a new system. Anderson said he’s requested $150 million to make the switch.
Georgia spent more than $100 million in 2019 on its current system of touchscreens. The machines were purchased from Dominion Voting Systems and have become a target of conservative activists since President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
In 2025, legislators considered switching to paper ballots. They even set up a House study committee where, for months, members considered a number of election issues, including replacing Georgia’s touchscreen voting system, reviewing voter registration accuracy and compliance with the QR code deadline. But ultimately, no legislation has landed on Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
Anderson said as legislators continued to work on a proposal to comply with the deadline, they realized that it wasn’t feasible “without causing a severe upset in our election system.”
The bill, supported by election officials, would create an advisory committee aimed at assisting the secretary of state with certifying the new statewide voting system in 2027. The system would need to be in place by January 2028.
The proposal was met with mixed reactions on Tuesday. While some supported the idea of a transition to paper ballots, they said it needs to happen this year.
“We cannot have fair and accurate elections with the Dominion machines,” said Earl Ferguson, a conservative activist who supports paper ballots.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Last year, lawmakers didn’t fund an upgrade to Georgia’s voting machines that would patch vulnerabilities in time for the midterms, something that critics say leaves the system unprotected against bad actors. But Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has defended the state’s system, saying the vulnerabilities couldn’t be exploited in real-world conditions.
Trump has never conceded his 2020 defeat and has continued to oppose voting machines, even suggesting he should have sent in the military to seize voting machines.
Numerous investigations have found no evidence of wrongdoing, and multiple vote counts upheld former President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
The bill could soon get a vote from the full House before it goes back to the Senate, where senators will have to agree to the latest version of the bill.
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