Georgia voters know something is wrong with our elections. It isn’t about partisan spin or sour grapes; it’s about the fundamental truth that Georgia’s current touchscreen voting system cannot produce ballots that can be trusted—or audited—to prove who actually won any election. That simple, sobering fact ought to alarm every citizen, regardless of political affiliation. And the pathway to a solution is in front of the Georgia House of Representatives’ Blue Ribbon Committee on Election Procedures to recommend at this Thursday’s meeting.
Georgia relies on touchscreen ballot-marking devices (BMDs) that generate a computer-printed ballot containing QR code votes. QR code votes, not the printed text, is what the scanner actually counts. Voters cannot read those codes to know for whom their ballot is marked. And if the code is programmed wrong, the voter cannot correct it by voting a new ballot. Federal law requires that voters be able to review their own votes and verify those official votes reflect their choices before casting the ballot, and be able to correct errors. Georgia’s system fails that logical standard. It is absurd to have a system where the voter must cast their vote blindly. Georgia lawmakers should have banned this system long ago.
Worse, Georgia’s system has been severely compromised. In 2021, a massive breach of Dominion software in Coffee County—the largest voting system breach in the nation’s history—allowed copies of the state’s voting software to be distributed to far flung unauthorized actors. That breach has never been mitigated. The very same exploitable and compromised software remains in use today as we face the highly contentious 2026 midterms.
Independent experts, including some of the nation’s most respected computer scientists, have extensively documented severe vulnerabilities in the Dominion system. The findings were confirmed by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Yet despite this clear evidence, Georgia’s Secretary of State has resisted every effort to mitigate the risks or harden the system. The vulnerabilities remain, leaving Georgia voters with an easily exploitable system that simply is not fit for conducting public elections.
These machines also trample on voter privacy. The touchscreen displays are so large and bright that anyone passing by can glimpse a voter’s choices. Most Georgians have experienced this firsthand—it is virtually impossible to shield your ballot selections from the peering eyes of those around. Georgia law promises secret ballots, yet the large touchscreens make that right an illusion.
Georgia has clung to touchscreens long after most of the nation abandoned them. By the mid-2000s, states across the country concluded that touchscreen systems could never produce verifiable results, and returned to hand-marked paper ballots. Today, roughly 70 percent of Americans vote on paper ballots marked with pen, producing a permanent, clear record of the voter’s actual intent. Georgia stands as a stubborn reckless outlier.
It doesn’t have to be this way. This November’s statewide Public Service Commission election is a low-turnout contest with only two races on the statewide ballot. It presents the perfect opportunity to test how most of America votes, with a voluntary pilot program of hand-marked paper ballots in counties which volunteer. The pilot would also use ballot-on-demand printers to streamline logistics at large county early voting centers, and updated precinct scanners with stronger software privacy protections.
This is a common-sense step forward. Under the pending proposal, counties wanting to volunteer could participate; no county would be forced. The Blue Ribbon Committee on Election Procedures should recommend that the Secretary of State authorize this pilot and that the State Election Board endorse the proposal submitted by the Georgia Republican Party for the pilot election.
The benefits of this approach are clear: votes that voters can actually verify, secret ballots, and election results that can be trusted and publicly audited. Georgia would not be lagging behind, but leading toward the kind of verifiable, transparent elections the public deserves.
This is not a partisan issue. It is a matter of basic election integrity and the rule of law. Candidates, political leaders, county election officials, activists, and concerned citizens alike should urge the Blue Ribbon Committee to seize this moment. The Committee meets this Thursday, August 28. Now is the time to speak up.
Send your message to the Committee today. Request that they recommend a hand-marked paper ballot pilot. The security and credibility of Georgia’s elections are at stake. You may find the members’ names and staff email address at https://www.legis.ga.gov/other-committees/house/2025/blue-ribbon-election-procedures
Marilyn Marks is the Executive Director of Coalition for Good Governance, a non-partisan non-profit organization focused on election security and transparency.
