The State Election Board on Monday rejected calls to implement widespread use of paper ballots filled out by hand in the November election.
Election integrity advocates asked the board to authorize the statewide use of hand-marked paper ballots, citing concerns about the security of Georgia’s Dominion Voting System machines.
“I’m just asking you to move to secure our voting system before the most important election in my lifetime,” longtime tea party activist Debbie Dooley, who proposed one of the rules, told the board.
But the board unanimously rejected two similar rules calling for the use of hand-marked paper ballots. Among other things, board members said they lack the authority to implement sweeping changes to the way Georgians cast their ballots.
“The Legislature in Georgia has put their trust and confidence in these Dominion machines,” board Chairperson John Fervier told Dooley. “I don’t think it’s the place of this board to go against the Legislature.”
Some Republican and Democratic election security advocates have long objected to Georgia’s Dominion machines, which print ballots after voters choose candidates on touchscreens. Security experts have found the machines are vulnerable to hacking that could switch votes, though the chance of such manipulation is remote.
There is no evidence the machines have been manipulated during an election, though Coffee County election officials allowed conspiracy theorists to copy confidential election files in early 2021. That led to criminal charges against four people in the Fulton County election interference case, two of whom have pleaded guilty.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger plans to upgrade the Dominion software to address the vulnerabilities. But he’s said it could not be done before the 2024 election — a position that has drawn plenty of criticism.
State law allows local election officials to deploy paper ballots as a backup in emergency situations. The board has previously cited a power failure that disables voting machines as such an emergency.
In similar rules proposed to the board, Dooley and election security advocate Marilyn Marks said concerns about the Dominion machines amount to an emergency that should be addressed by using paper ballots to ensure the integrity of election results. Their proposed temporary rules would have expired in July 2026.
Marks said the board has the authority to act to address the concerns about the Dominion system.
“The General Assembly, in its wisdom decades ago, said, if the primary method of voting is impaired, there has to be a backup,” Marks told the board Monday. “It only makes sense.”
Board member Janelle King doubted that questions about the security of voting machines were akin to power failures under state law.
“We are altering how the election is being conducted,” King said of Dooley’s proposed rule. “That is outside the purview of the State Election Board.”
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