New way for Georgia voters to cast ballots might look awfully familiar to you

I remember what voting in Georgia was like back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. We used a No. 2 pencil to fill in little ovals next to our ballot selections on a rectangular card, and then the cards were fed into an optical scanner to record our votes. It was the same system used by schools for standardized testing back then and it was simple, straightforward and reliable.

When the state switched over to electronic touchscreen voting machines back in 2002, I wondered why we needed to spend so much money to change a system that seemed to be working just fine. But technology marches on, I said to myself, and in time maybe it would be obvious why the upgrade was a good idea.

On reflection it seems that my first reaction to the new voting system – that it was unnecessary, expensive and offered no real improvement over the old system – turned out to be correct.

Doubts about the reliability and security of our state’s electronic voting system have dogged it from the beginning. The fact that it produces no hard copy record of the votes that are cast means there is no way to verify that the system hasn’t been hacked or malfunctioned in some way that would alter the results of an election. For just that reason, only a handful of states rely on voting systems like ours that produce no auditable paper trail.

But change may once again be on the way. Earlier this month Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office issued a request for voting machine companies to submit proposals to replace Georgia’s all-electronic voting system with one that produces paper ballots. The goal would be for the current system to be replaced in time for the presidential primaries in 2020.

Humorously enough, one possible replacement technology suggested by this request for proposals would be a system that involves ballots “marked by hand and fed into an optical scanner for tabulation.” Yes, that’s right taxpayers – we might spend millions more dollars to return to the exact same type of voting system that we spent millions of dollars to replace 16 years ago.

Needless to say, Kemp is on the receiving end of some strong criticism for how he’s handled the situation. After claiming for his entire eight-year tenure as secretary of state that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the state’s voting system, he has rather suddenly done an about-face and is taking steps to change it now that he is running for governor

However, he plans to keep the system as-is until after this year’s election takes place, which has only led to further criticism. A group of unhappy Georgia voters recently filed a federal lawsuit to force the state to switch to a paper ballot system before this fall’s election.

Kemp’s decision to push the possible retooling of our voting system until after the gubernatorial election in which he is running has even led to suggestions from some quarters (many of them Democratic officials, of course) that he should step down from his position as secretary of state and let someone with a more objective perspective decide on an appropriate timeline for updating the system.

Meanwhile, Kemp continues to adamantly oppose any suggestion that Georgia should attempt a switch to a paper ballot system before this fall’s elections, asserting that any effort to do so would cause chaos at the polls and negatively impact voter turnout. I think he’s probably right about that, as it seems unlikely that a change of that magnitude could be effectively accomplished in such a short period of time.

But he’s going to have to answer to voters as to why failed to take action on the issue during his eight years as secretary of state. How well he makes his case that he did a competent job in ensuring the integrity of our voting system in his current position might help some voters make up their mind as to whether or not he deserves a promotion to the governor’s mansion.