Georgia Lawmakers Size Up Replacements for Dominion Machines

ATLANTA, Ga. — Georgia lawmakers spent Thursday pressing election vendors and trying out their machines as the state hunts for a voting system to replace the QR-code ballots that voters have scanned for years.

The joint legislative committee on election equipment specifications and standards held its fifth meeting at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building, followed by hands-on demonstrations at the Capitol. Sen. Max Burns of Sylvania and Rep. Victor Anderson of Cornelia lead the panel, which was set up by Senate Resolution 3EX during this year’s special session.

Its assignment is narrow but high stakes: write the specifications for equipment built around hand-marked paper ballots printed on demand at the polls. The legislature already voted to drop the QR-code tabulation method over security worries, and during the special session it moved the deadline for having a new system chosen and running to Jan. 1, 2028.

Four vendors testified Thursday. The meeting agenda listed VotingWorks, Clear Ballot, Civera Election Suite, and Liberty Vote USA with KNOWiNK, after an earlier round of companies made their pitches at the start of the month.

Security and speed dominated the questions. Asked by Sen. Bo Hatchett of Cornelia to name the most important safeguard, Ben Adida, executive director of VotingWorks, pointed to software integrity, meaning strong assurance that only approved software runs on the equipment. Witnesses warned that even minor glitches can cost votes or stretch lines.

Adida told the panel that checking in a Georgia voter takes 48 seconds on average and scanning a finished ballot about 3 seconds, and he urged lawmakers to choose a system that matches those times at minimum.

The current Dominion machines are approaching the end of their working lives. They drew unproven fraud claims after 2020, though every federal, state and local review found no fraud. The committee plans to send its recommendation to the full General Assembly and the next secretary of state around the start of the 2027 session.