The Georgia General Assembly did not have to pass income tax reduction and property tax relief in 2026.
Yet the Senate and House found a way to compromise before the end of their regular legislative session April 2 to address Georgians’ affordability concerns.
But both chambers failed in a fundamental task by refusing to come together to solve a looming crisis about how citizens vote in elections in the Peach State.
Two years ago, lawmakers set a deadline of July 1, 2026, to remove QR codes from ballots due to election security concerns from critics. After that date, the way the state counts votes could be illegal.
If it was such a big deal, why didn’t they act before the deadline? Lawmakers shirked their duties. Now it’s time for Gov. Brian Kemp to pick up the mess.
As inconvenient as it will be for political candidates due to upcoming primary and runoff elections or because of the influx of an estimated 300,000 visitors during the World Cup this summer, elected officials must put the citizens before their ambitions and desires.
That’s why the governor should call the General Assembly back into a special legislative session to resolve the issue. Given the timing, the best option would be to delay the July 1 deadline further and allow the new secretary of state who assumes office in 2027 — whoever that might be — to develop recommendations for the legislature.
Paper ballots implemented hastily are not the answer
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
The cost of doing nothing is high.
Georgia faces potential court challenges especially if litigants fear that Georgians’ votes won’t count or will be counted unlawfully.
The state’s touchscreen system is functional. To change the way elections work on a dime is a terrible solution. Legislators have not given counties sufficient resources or time to train elections officials and poll workers before the upcoming elections.
On March 27, the Georgia Senate passed a bill (House Bill 960) that would have changed the way citizens vote from touchscreen monitors to hand-marked paper ballots read by an optical scanner.
However, senators could not find a compromise with the state House of Representatives.
That’s a failure on the parts of both Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who presides over the Senate, and House Speaker Jon Burns.
On April 14, Jones wrote to the State Board of Elections urging the body to conduct a review of the state’s voting system and urging board members to direct counties to use a backup paper ballot system in lieu of the current touchscreen system.
In the letter, dated one day prior to the state elections board meeting, the lieutenant governor blamed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — one of his rivals in the 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary — for taking “no action to prepare the state to comply with this (QR code removal) law in the administration of its elections.”
The political rivalry between Jones and Raffensperger is irrelevant and unimportant to the voters.
Moreover, the paper ballot solution is a deeply flawed fix. Paper ballots introduce human error and other inaccuracies that could seriously upend Georgia elections.
The state has spent years since the 2020 presidential election to strengthen election security and create greater guardrails against fraud.
Sadly, all this action and posturing came as a result of the repeatedly disproven assertion by President Donald Trump and his allies — including Jones — that Georgia’s election that year was stolen.
The denial, lies and performative outrage intensified after Trump returned to office for a second term in 2025, culminating in this past January’s FBI raid of the Fulton County Elections hub.
Keep elections free, fair and secure
Kemp, who previously served as secretary of state, knows the stakes are high — and he showed his integrity by refusing to go along with Trump’s efforts to change the election results six years ago.
Notably, Trump did not complain when he won the Peach State in 2024.
In 2021, Kemp defended a new controversial state election law that garnered criticism and even a boycott by Major League Baseball, which withdrew the All-Star Game from Atlanta because of the measure.
Kemp said then: “We shouldn’t apologize for wanting to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
“Free and fair elections are the foundation of who we are as a state and a nation. Secure, accessible, fair elections are worth the threats. They are worth the boycotts as well as the lawsuits,” the governor added.
On April 15, the State Election Board took no action on Jones’s request for paper ballots or any other solution.
That’s for the best as Jones effectively was asking the board to overstep its authority.
The board is not a lawmaking body, but the Georgia General Assembly is.
The failure to act on such fundamental measure for civic engagement and democratic participation proved to be an epic disaster.
Lawmakers must fix it before the July 1 deadline — in a way that will be measured, prudent and ensure that voters trust the system.
Governor Kemp: Call the legislature back promptly, keep the agenda to this one issue and demand a prompt solution for the benefit of all Georgians.
This editorial was written by AJC Opinion Editor David Plazas on behalf of and in consultation with the AJC Editorial Board, which comprises President and Publisher Andrew Morse, Editor-in-Chief Leroy Chapman Jr., Head of Standards and Practices Samira Jafari, and Plazas. Send letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer to letters@ajc.com. Include your name, city/town and contact information.
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