Georgia legislators approved half the money needed to replace heavy voting equipment across the state, along with additional funding for a quicker voter check-in process and election investigators.
The most expensive elections purchase in the state budget was $2 million for new power supply devices that connect to voting machines in precincts across the state.
The power supplies will be more portable for poll workers, weighing about 30 pounds each instead of the current equipment that weights 80 pounds. Some of the older power supplies have already stopped working, four years after they were purchased as part of Georgia’s $107 million acquisition of statewide voting equipment from Dominion Voting Systems.
“The uninterrupted power supplies required by our ballot-marking devices are currently at the end of their life cycles, and some have actually begun to fail,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. “The $2 million investment made by the Legislature will begin the upgrade process to new units that are more reliable and have a longer life cycle.”
Because the General Assembly only appropriated half the $4 million it would cost to replace power supplies statewide, many precincts will have to wait for new equipment. Legislators could consider that funding next year.
Other election items in the state’s $32.4 billion budget for the next fiscal year and the supplemental budget for this year include:
- $550,000 for a statewide data plan that connects voter check-in tablets to a cellphone network. The tablets will cut down on wait times during early voting by eliminating the need for voters to fill out paper forms and verifying their information at the same time that they receive activation cards for voting touchscreens. Election officials will be able to remotely monitor check-in times, slowdowns and when equipment isn’t online.
- $427,010 for two investigators, an administrative assistant and an executive director for the State Election Board. Currently, all election investigators work for Raffensperger in the secretary of state’s office.
- $250,000 for an online library to display digital images of scanned paper ballots. Ballot images are public records under Georgia’s voting law passed in 2021.
- $125,000 for an absentee ballot tracking service through the U.S. Postal Service.
- $25,000 to create a State Election Board website that’s independent from the secretary of state’s website.
Overall, the secretary of state’s office has a $33 million annual operating budget from state and federal sources to fund its elections, corporations, charities, securities and licensing divisions.
While legislators spent taxpayer money on election infrastructure in next year’s budget, they also passed another bill that would ban nonprofit organizations from making donations to county election offices. Republicans supporting the bill said it would prevent donations that disproportionately benefited Democratic areas in the 2020 election year.
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