Sweeping changes to election rules intended to increase paper ballot options, expand the powers of the State Election Board and remove the state from a voter registration sharing database are up for debate as the 2025 legislative session nears a close.
The Senate Ethics Committee held a two-hour hearing on the latest version of House Bill 397, which could mandate big changes to Georgia election procedures if signed into law. No vote was taken on the bill sponsored by Covington Republican Rep. Tim Fleming.
The Republican-backed election bill would prohibit Georgia from sharing voter information with third-party groups like the Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC. The partnership allows Georgia to share updated voter rolls with 24 other states.
Under HB 397, the Georgia elections board would evaluate the procedures and policies for withdrawing from ERIC. and provide recommendations to the Senate Ethics Committee and the House Governmental Affairs Committee by the end of this year.
It would also give the Secretary of State the authority to make agreements with other states to share voter roll data.
Secretary of State election officials asked legislators Wednesday to reconsider banning the state from participating in a multistate database they say helps efficiently maintain accurate voter rolls.
Charlene McGowan, general counsel for the Georgia Secretary of State, said the proposals in HB 397 could undermine the state’s ability to conduct meaningful and secure data matching with other states, whether it be through a state-to-state agreement or a multi-state compact.
“This bill does severely restrict the secretary’s ability to share information, such as driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers with other states,” she said. “The problem with that is that states rely on that type of information in order to conduct accurate matching.”
The bill’s Republican sponsors were also urged by the statewide association of county election officials to make changes to the bill that would require hand counting of ballots as voting precincts are closing down for the day.
Fulton County is home to more than 750,000 registered voters, according to the secretary of state office’s website. State law requires that local election superintendents report to the secretary of state and post publicly the total number of ballots cast both on Election Day and during early voting, including absentee ballots.
Rebecca Anglin, the election director in Greene County, expressed concerns about the chain of custody and hand count of paper ballots at the precinct level, emphasizing the need for secure handling and timely reporting.
The election overhaul legislation proposes giving the State Election Board more independence from the secretary of state’s office by moving its administration under the state accounting office.
The controversial state GOP-controlled board that is now dominated by three supporters of President Donald Trump could also be the body to hear appeals to a controversial mass voter challenge after complaints are settled by county election boards.
“This will allow for faster adjudication. If you start with them and then you disagree with the decision, then you’ll go to the superior court,” Fleming said.
Georgia Republican Party District Chairman Brad Carver said it’s important that the State Election Board has enough backing from the state to be fully staffed to afford more investigators and other support positions that can trim case backlogs and handle new roles.
He mentioned the significant expenses associated with voter challenges going to superior courts instead of election officials.
“If you have an appellate authority in the State Election Board, you will have more consistent application to make sure that the laws are followed across the state by all 159 counties,” Carver said.
Another provision expands board duties to allow custody of all state investigative reports and communications between the secretary of state and election superintendents.
Fleming said the bill seeks to restore more autonomy to the state board that enforces election rule compliance.
“The State Election Board handles elections investigations and complaints, and having access to this information is necessary for them to do their job and for adjudication purposes,” Fleming said. “This continues to return autonomy to the State Election Board.”
State election officials could also spell out their rulemaking powers with proposed year-round authority to adopt election rules so long as they don’t take effect within 60 days of an election.
The Senate Ethics Committee passed a bill Wednesday that would allow Georgia voters to cast a hand-marked paper ballot at polling places during early voting and on Election Day.
The Senate Ethics Committee voted Wednesday in favor of Senate Bill 214, a proposal to give voters the ability to cast their votes in polling places using pen or pencils, which can now be used to complete absentee ballots.
Sylvania Republican Sen. Max Burns said the legislation gives voters during early voting and election days the option of paper ballots or the electronic touchscreen system that’s been used for statewide elections since 2020.
“At the end of the day (SB) 214 is designed to provide us a path forward beyond the current environment and move to hand-marked paper ballot systems tabulated with an optical scan and then supported by a print on demand ballot system,” Burns said.
Burns said he expects modifications to the bill as he tries to usher it through the legislative process.
If Burns can get his bill signed into law, it will mark a big win for a movement that has long contended that hand-marked paper ballots are more transparent and safer than electronic machines.
The state’s electronic Dominion Voting Systems machines were rolled out statewide in 2019, but by that time the state was already involved in a legal battle with Coalition for Good Governance and other plaintiffs who argue that hand-marking ballots is the safest way to vote.
The debate over electronic voting machines versus paper ballots later became the focus of conspiracy theorists who blamed Dominion’s system for Republican President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020.
Over the last couple of years, a prominent pro-paper ballot movement has been led by VoterGa, a largely pro-Trump faction that has urged people to request that state officials get rid of the electronic voting system.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has defended the security of the voting machine system.
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder.
