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Commission Recommending Machine-Marked Ballots for Georgia

AP Photo/Alex Sanz, File

A commission tasked with considering potential replacements for Georgia's outdated election system is recommending ballots marked by machines and a requirement for post-election audits.

The Secure, Accessible and Fair Elections, or SAFE, Commission voted Thursday to approve a draft of a report to be sent to lawmakers, who are expected to decide on criteria for a new system during the legislative session that begins Monday.

The commission's recommendations also include requiring that the system produce a paper record of votes cast.

Cybersecurity experts have warned the paperless touchscreen voting machines Georgia has used since 2002 are unreliable and vulnerable to hacking.

Some members of the commission, including the lone cybersecurity expert on the panel, disagreed with the recommendation of machine-marked ballots and preferred hand-marked paper ballots read by optical scanners.

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