(The Center Square) – The committee room was packed on Thursday as Georgia’s Senate Ethics Committee debated Senate Bill 3EX that would affect the state’s November elections.
But unlike committee meetings held during the regular session, no one testified.
“If there is any legislative issue that deserves thorough public vetting, bipartisan participation, and expert review, it is how votes are cast and counted,” Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Committee for Good Governance, told The Center Square. “Instead, the Senate Ethics Committee refused to hear a single member of the public or expert before advancing a bill mandating more touchscreen voting for the next decade, with the bill written to strongly favor one specific vendor. The message was clear: citizens, experts and even Democratic Party lawmakers’ voices can stand outside with their noses pressed against the windowpane while Republican insiders and their appointees make the decisions.”
The bill presented by Sylvania Republican Max Burns has three parts. One would establish a nine-member committee to choose a new vendor for the state’s voting system. The bill increases the number of post-election audits.
But the delay in banning the counting of votes by QR codes has drawn the most attention. Senate Bill 189 set a July 1 deadline. But lawmakers did not establish an alternative method of counting or funding.
Marks calls it a manufactured crisis. She repeatedly said that the law allows counties to use hand-marked ballots as a backup when the primary voting system cannot be used, thereby eliminating the use of QR codes.
Members of the State Election Board have agreed with her. Vice Chairwoman Janelle King, Salleigh Grubbs and former member Jan Johnston supported a nonbinding resolution at the board’s June meeting stating that counties could switch to hand-marked ballots if needed for the November elections.
The Senate will vote on the bill during a rare Saturday session and, if it passes, send it to the House. But Democrats are also feeling left out of the process.
Senate Minority Leader Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain asked for an amendment to seat Democrats on the committee that will decide the state’s new voting system. Her measure failed.
None of the committee Democrats voted for Senate Bill 3EX.