(The Center Square) – The Georgia secretary of state’s office said Thursday it opposes any efforts to change elections before the November primary, setting up a conflict with the State Election Board.
The election board agreed Wednesday to consider a proposal from the Coalition for Good Governance that would declare the current system unusable and force election workers to use hand-marked ballots.
Georgia law allows the use of a paper ballot backup system if using the current voting system is “impossible or impracticable.” The rule under consideration by the State Election Board is based on information from the Coalition for Good Governance that the current voting system cannot be trusted because it does not produce a human-readable official vote or keep ballots secret.
Marks told the State Election Board members that they have a statutory duty to invoke a rule. The secretary of state’s office and Election Board Chairman John Fervier disagree.
“I’ve made this clear on multiple points,” Fervier said during Wednesday’s special-called meeting. “I don’t think this board ought to get in front of the Legislature. We should make rules that are consistent with current law.”
Fervier and board member Janelle King opposed a motion that would allow the board to meet with Marks to tweak the proposed rule and possibly vote on it at another special-called meeting.
Some hope the General Assembly will hold a special session to address elections. Gov. Brian Kemp would have to call the session and he has not indicated if or when that would happen.
Lawmakers had two election bills that both failed during the 2026 session.
Senate Bill 214 would have delayed the QR code ban until Jan. 1, 2028, just before that year’s presidential preference primary. Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, attempted to pass House Bill 960 that would have given legislative approval to use hand-marked ballots.
Making any changes as to how elections are conducted now is setting county officials up for failure, Michon Lindstrom, senior director of communications for the secretary of state’s office, wrote in an email to The Center Square.
“It is not practical to overhaul the election system in the middle of an election,” Linstrom said. “Our office will work with counties to ensure we have a safe and secure election that fully complies with all legal requirements.”
Joseph Kirk, president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials and Bartow County Election Supervisor, agrees. Right now, election officials are focused on the May 19 primary elections, which will likely lead to runoffs in June.
“We said the entire session that there’s no responsible way for us to change our method of voting statewide between the primary runoff in June and the general election in November,” Kirk said in an interview with The Center Square. “That only gives us about two and a half months to make a massive change statewide.”
The best solution is for the General Assembly to pass a bill using language from Senate Bill 214, Kirk said.
“One of the hallmarks of my profession is we like to have a plan and then a backup plan for the plan and a backup plan for the backup plan because on Election Day, we can’t fail. We have to keep going,” Kirk said. “The truth of the matter is we have a very large primary election in front of us on May 19th, a runoff election that could be equally as big depending on what the runoff is on June 16 and our focus needs to be on that.”