Georgia Senators voted along party lines Friday to pass sweeping election legislation that would require hand-marked paper ballots for the November election. The bill eliminates the state's current touchscreen Ballot Marking Devices.
Under the new system, voters would fill out ballots by hand. Machines would tabulate the paper records, and mandatory hand counts would begin just two days after polls close.
The bill also significantly changes election oversight. It removes the Secretary of State's role in supervising election challenges and recounts, placing that authority solely with the State Election Board.
Democrats warned the labor-intensive hand recounts are a "bad use of tax dollars" and invite human error. Senator Emanuel Jones called it "voter suppression by dysfunction." Republicans, led by Senator Greg Dolezal, celebrated moving Georgia away from the "outlier" status of using ballot marking devices.
