(The Center Square) – A committee that will recommend a new state voting system for Georgia will hold its first meeting Aug. 7, legislative leaders said Tuesday.
The nine-member Joint Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee was created as part of Senate Bill 3X during a June special session.
Gov. Brian Kemp called the special session after lawmakers failed to provide funding and specifications for a clause in Senate Bill 189 that eliminated the use of QR codes to tabulate votes. The bill extended the deadline to January.
The committee will recommend a voting system that uses hand-marked ballots using ballot-on-demand printing, according to a release from the General Assembly.
Three members are appointed by House Speaker Jon Burns and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones from their respective chambers. The governor’s office appoints the other three members.
Kemp selected Paulding County Elections and Voter Registration Supervisor Deidre Holden, Sam Hatcher, executive counsel for Kemp’s office and Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council Executive Director Chris Harvey, a former elections director and investigator in the secretary of state’s office.
Burns appointed Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, the Republican nominee for secretary of state, and Democrat Scott Holcomb of Atlanta. Cornelia Republican Victor Anderson will serve as House cochairwoman.
Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 3X, will serve as the Senate cochairman. Jones appointed Republicans Bo Hatchett of Cornelia and Rick Williams of Milledgeville to serve.
“As a former secretary of state and current governor, I know firsthand just how much our system of governance rests on being able to trust the results of the ballot box,” Kemp said in a statement. “That’s why we’ve made it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Georgia, and I look forward to the recommendations from the committee on how we can preserve that trust.”
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said an audit of the June 16 primary runoff showed that every ballot error came from a hand-marked one.
“Human beings make human errors and the likelihood of a discrepancy between voter intent and what’s marked on a ballot is greatest when that ballot has been marked by hand,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
Raffensperger has defended the state’s elections since 2020. President Donald Trump lost Georgia to former President Joe Biden and still says he won. Biden defeated Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College. Georgia contributed 16 electoral votes to the Democrats’ win, not enough by itself to reverse the 74 votes needed to overcome Biden.
The FBI is investigating the Fulton County Elections Office. More than 600 boxes of tabulator tapes, ballots and other election-related materials were seized in a January raid.
FBI special agent Hugh Raymond Evans said in the warrant that the documents were part of an ongoing criminal investigation. In the nearly eight months since the raid, no criminal charges have been filed, and no end date has been given for the probe.