New panel begins work reviewing options for Georgia’s next election system

However, legislators failed to appropriate the roughly $66 million needed to make the switch and did not postpone the deadline during the 2026 session, so Gov. Brian Kemp summoned lawmakers back to the Capitol earlier this summer for a special session to address the looming election deadline.

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Under a new law passed in June, Georgia’s current election system — which uses machines to mark voters’ selections and then prints a completed paper ballot — will remain in place until 2028, giving lawmakers time to replace the voting machines. The law also established a special committee which will focus solely on hand-marked paper ballot voting systems and issue a report to state lawmakers by February 2027.

“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. “I look forward to the recommendations from the committee on how we can preserve that trust.”

The governor’s appointees to the committee include former state Elections Director Chris Harvey, Paulding County elections supervisor Deidre Holden and Kemp’s executive counsel Sam Hatcher.

Several Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Max Burns of Sylvania and Rep. Victor Anderson of Cornelia, will also sit on the committee according to a press release issued Tuesday. Covington Rep. Tim Fleming, the Republican nominee in the race to become the next secretary of state, will also be a member. Rep. Scott Holcomb of Atlanta is the only Democrat who was appointed to the committee.

Anderson, who also chairs the House committee that typically handles election bills, said he expected legislators from both chambers to be “pretty much in lockstep” with their goals for the panel.

“I don’t really see there being a House priorities or Senate priorities scenario in this committee,” Anderson said. “It’s more going to be what’s best for the voters in the state of Georgia.”

But Senate Democrats, who had raised concerns during the special session about being excluded from the committee, accused legislative leaders of “bad governance” over the panel’s composition. 

“Both Democrats and Republicans care deeply about elections, election security and election integrity,” Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones said. “Shutting one side out of that conversation makes it ripe for partisan games and conspiracy theorist takeover.”

Joseph Kirk, the Bartow County elections director and president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, said he hopes the meetings will be fruitful, giving legislators a head start heading into next year.

“The more the committee can get done before the next legislative session, the more they can talk about what we’re looking for from the system — not what brand we want or what company, but what we need out of the system,” he said.

The committee will hold its first meeting in Atlanta on Aug. 7.