SB303: SB303 Elections and Primaries; state-wide uniform system of voting equipment; revise provisions

Georgia currently uses a uniform statewide voting system chosen and certified by the Secretary of State, which relies on electronic ballot markers and scanners to mark and tabulate ballots. This bill moves that authority to the State Election Board and changes the required method: ballots would be hand marked by voters and counted in a publicly recorded hand count at the polling place where they were cast, rather than scanned. Voters with disabilities who cannot use a hand marked ballot would still have access to an electronic ballot marking device that produces a readable paper ballot. The bill also requires that any tabulation, result-publication, or voter-authentication equipment be incapable of remote access and be made by an American owned company using only American made parts and labor, and certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission. It updates rules for counties contracting with municipalities to share equipment, keeps a path for small counties to use paper ballots marked by pen for certain special elections, and makes conforming changes to how absentee ballots are scanned. The changes would take effect January 1, 2026.

• Transfers responsibility for certifying and selecting Georgia's statewide voting equipment from the Secretary of State to the State Election Board.
• Requires elections to use hand marked paper ballots that are counted in a public hand count at the polling place, replacing scanner based tabulation as the default.
• Requires each polling place to still offer an electronic ballot marking device for voters with disabilities who cannot use a hand marked ballot.
• Requires any state purchased voting or tabulation equipment to be free of remote access capability and made in America by an American owned company using American made parts.
• Updates rules for counties contracting with municipalities to share state provided voting equipment and for reimbursement of election costs.
• Makes conforming changes to absentee ballot scanning procedures to reflect the new certification process.

County election officials and boards of registrars who run elections, the Secretary of State's office and the State Election Board, municipal governments that contract for voting equipment, voters generally who will hand mark ballots, and voters with disabilities who rely on ballot marking devices.

If enacted, most Georgia voters would mark paper ballots by hand rather than using an electronic ballot marking device, and votes would be counted by hand in public at the polling place rather than by scanner, changing how elections are run and how quickly results are produced.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 21-2-300 to give the State Election Board, not the Secretary of State, authority to certify and select the statewide voting system.
• Section 1 requires ballots to be hand marked by electors and tabulated through a publicly recorded hand count at the polling place where cast.
• Section 1 requires each polling place to keep an electronic ballot marker available for electors with disabilities who cannot use hand marked ballots, also certified by the State Election Board.
• Section 1 requires new voting, tabulation, and authentication equipment to be incapable of remote access and made in America by an American owned company with American made components, and certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission before purchase.
• Section 1 keeps a provision letting counties with fewer than 5,000 registered electors petition the State Election Board to use pen marked physical ballots for certain special elections.
• Section 1 authorizes the State Election Board to run pilot programs testing hand marked and hand counted paper ballots.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 21-2-386 so that absentee ballot scanning requirements reference the new certification process under the State Election Board.
• Section 3 sets the effective date as January 1, 2026.

1. 2025-02-28Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2025-02-27Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Colton Moore (R, SD-053)Primary sponsor
• Steve Gooch (R, SD-051)
• Greg Dolezal (R, SD-027)

• election equipment
• paper ballots
• hand counted votes
• State Election Board
• voting rights for disabled voters