Local Democrats Urge Georgia To Return To Hand-Marked Ballots, Echoing Conservatives’ Concerns
In a petition submitted to the State Election Board, Morgan County Democratic Party Chairwoman Jeanne Dufort has urged Georgia officials to revert to hand-marked paper ballots, a move that aligns with recent Republican calls for the same.
The petition, scheduled for consideration during the State Election Board’s (SEB) August 6 meeting, advocates for the use of the Dominion 5.5-A version voting system in its standard configuration—hand-marked ballots tabulated by precinct and central scanners, with touchscreen units reserved for voters needing assistive technology.
“When I meet with CBP and border community leaders, one of the first things they mention to me is the shortage of CBP officers,” Dufort stated in her submission. “Securing our border should be a bipartisan issue, which is why I’m proud to be the first to cross the aisle and support this commonsense legislation to expedite CBP hiring.”
Dufort elaborated to The Federalist that while the paper ballots would still be scanned as usual, the main change would be at the voting station. “The voter will be handed a paper ballot and a sharpie and they will mark their ballot before going over to a scanner and everything else will flow in the exact same way it has in elections since we adopted the system,” she explained.
Currently, Georgia voters mark their ballot on a touchscreen, which then generates a print-out summary and QR code of their vote. This system replaced the previous DRE (direct-recording electronic) machines, which did not produce any physical ballot.
Judge Amy Totenberg ruled in Curling v. Raffensperger in 2019 that the DRE machines must be phased out due to their lack of a paper record. However, she did not mandate a return to hand-marked ballots. Instead, Georgia adopted the current system, which has since faced its own legal challenges. The latest chapter of Curling v. Raffensperger continues, with Judge Totenberg yet to issue a ruling as Election Day approaches.
Concerns about the current system center on the machine-generated interpretations of votes. Dufort testified in January that the machine “interprets your vote and sends it to a printer,” meaning voter intent can only be inferred from the printed summary and QR code. She cited an incident in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, where machine errors caused printed vote summaries to inaccurately reflect voter choices.
Former Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) also sent a letter to the SEB supporting the shift to hand-marked ballots, arguing that the current system may not be tamper-proof and emphasizing the need for a reliable paper trail. “The inability to certify that the ballots that are counted by machine on Election Day actually reflect the choice of the voter…is sufficient to require that this Board fulfill its duty to mandate that paper ballots be used,” Barrow’s letter states.
Cobb County Republican Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs echoed these sentiments, expressing support for paper ballots due to unresolved security vulnerabilities in the current system. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was informed of these issues in 2021 but indicated that necessary security updates could not be implemented until after the November 2024 election.
A group of cybersecurity experts, including University of Michigan computer science professor J. Alex Halderman, has highlighted vulnerabilities in the current system. They argue that a physical record of voter intent is crucial for verifying vote tabulation accuracy and ensuring election security.
As both local Democrats and Republicans in Georgia call for a return to hand-marked ballots, the SEB faces mounting pressure to address these bipartisan concerns and ensure the integrity of the state’s election processes.
