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New Paper Ballot Machines Roll Out in Georgia — and So Far, So Good

The program for now is a one-off effort meant to demonstrate how Georgia could get past its current system, which is almost entirely electronic and has no paper trail.

More than a dozen voters have used new paper-ballot voting machines in Conyers with no reported problems, the first step of a new pilot program to test the machines in Georgia.

“It’s fair to say we’re excited to get the ball rolling and partner with a good elections office and give voters a preview of what the future of voting may look like,” said Chris Harvey, Georgia's elections director. 

“This kind of technology seems to be what a lot of states are going toward,” Harvey added. “This is becoming the new normal.”

The program for now is a one-off effort meant to demonstrate how Georgia could get past its current system, which is almost entirely electronic and has no paper trail.

The system, used statewide since 2002, was considered state-of-the-art when it was adopted 15 years ago but is now universally acknowledged by experts to be vulnerable to security risks and buggy software.

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
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