Amid growing concerns over election security, both Democrats and Republicans in Georgia are advocating for a return to hand-marked paper ballots. The Morgan County Democratic Party Chairwoman Jeanne Dufort has submitted a petition to the State Election Board (SEB), urging the adoption of the Dominion 5.5-A voting system, which uses hand-marked ballots tabulated by precinct and central scanners.
Dufort explained that the change would involve providing voters with paper ballots and markers, which they would then scan as usual. “The only component that changes is in the voting station,” she told The Federalist. “This ensures a reliable paper trail that accurately reflects voter intent.”
The call for hand-marked ballots has gained bipartisan support, with Cobb County Republican Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs also advocating for the move. Grubbs expressed concerns over unresolved security vulnerabilities in the current system and emphasized the need for a secure voting process. “We have not had the machines updated with the security patches, it was too late to do it, Raffensperger said that. He has chosen not to do the things that needed to be done to secure the election so from that perspective, I support paper ballots,” Grubbs said.
Former Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) has also voiced his support, highlighting the importance of having a verifiable paper trail. “The current system’s inability to certify that the ballots counted by machine reflect the voters’ choices is a significant issue,” Barrow wrote in a letter to the SEB.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was informed of these issues in 2021 but indicated that necessary updates could not be implemented until after the November 2024 election. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a report in 2022 acknowledging “vulnerabilities affecting versions of the Dominion Voting Systems Democracy Suite ImageCast X, which is an in-person voting system used to allow voters to mark their ballot.” CISA continued that the vulnerabilities “present risks that should be mitigated as soon as possible,” but said the agency had “no evidence that these vulnerabilities have been exploited in any elections.”
As the SEB prepares to review the petition during its August 6 meeting, the bipartisan push for hand-marked ballots underscores the shared commitment to enhancing election integrity in Georgia. The push for hand-marked ballots follows a Supreme Court decision and ongoing litigation in Curling v. Raffensperger, which challenges the current voting system’s reliability.
