Georgia Senate passes bill for hand-marked paper ballots

ATLANTA – Georgia Senators voted along party lines to pass sweeping election overhaul legislation.

The language, originally authored by Republican state Senator Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), had previously stalled before Crossover Day.

To give the measure new life, GOP lawmakers “gutted” an unrelated bill—HB 960—and replaced its contents with the new election regulations.

Mandatory hand-marked ballots

What we know:

If the bill becomes law, Georgia would abandon its current electronic Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) in favor of hand-marked paper ballots for the November election. Under this system:

• Voters fill out ballots by hand.
• Machines tabulate the paper records.
• Mandatory hand counts of those ballots must begin just two days after the polls close.

Stripping power from the Secretary of State

Dig deeper:

The legislation significantly alters the state’s election hierarchy. It removes the Secretary of State’s role in overseeing election challenges and recounts, placing that authority solely in the hands of the State Election Board.

Dolezal reacted to passage of the bill following Friday’s vote saying, “I’m very excited to see us pass the bill to move Georgia to a hand-marked paper ballot system.  We are currently an outlier using ballot marking devices.”

Senator Derek Mallow (D-Savannah) warned that this partisan shift, combined with the “labor-intensive” nature of hand recounts, is a “bad use of tax dollars” that invites human error.

‘Voter suppression by dysfunction’

What they’re saying:

Democrats, including Senator Emanuel Jones (D-Augusta) , argued the bill creates a “rushed timeline,” giving officials only four months to overhaul the entire state system.

“This is not about improving elections; it’s about giving colleagues something to run on,” Jones stated, calling the move “voter suppression by dysfunction.” Senator Josh McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs) further dismissed the bill as “smoke and mirrors” based on “lies about current systems.”

What’s next:

The bill now heads back to the House for consideration.