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From left: Republican candidates Vernon Jones, Kelvin King, Gabriel Sterling and Ted Metz debate in the 2026 race for secretary of state.
Credit: GPB News
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In debates for the secretary of state race, a broad consensus to change voting machines forms
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Candidates for secretary of state, the office ultimately responsible for the accuracy and safety of Georgia elections, faced off in partisan debates Tuesday, offering divergent paths to keeping the trust of the voting public.
From the beginning of the debate between Republican candidates Gabriel Sterling, Ted Metz, Vernon Jones and Kelvin King, it was apparent Sterling would be challenged by the others for his role in administering a state election system they all characterized as broken and even corrupt, pointing to still unproven allegations of misconduct in Fulton County during the 2020 election.
"Fulton County was a mess," Sterling said. "But we were the first people to ever hold them accountable and put monitors in place to try to take care of that issue, working hand in hand with the State Election Board. What we did in 2021 is we wrote the Election Integrity Act, SB 202."
That law changed rules for absentee voting so that those ballots would be mailed out closer to election day, added more early voting days and allowed for local boards of elections to begin tabulating absentee ballots weeks ahead of election day in order to speed up vote counting. It did not include the feature that all candidates but Sterling volunteered their endorsement for: hand-marked paper ballots.
"Every voter must be able to verify their ballot on paper with their eyes,” King said. "We are hurtling towards a calamity right now. July 1 is when we're not supposed to use QR codes on our ballots anymore."
King, who faced criticism for the perceived conflict of interest posed by his wife Janelle King's position on the State Election Board, asserted the state law passed in the waning days of the recent legislative session, which was aimed at changing the machinery used to cast ballots in the state, demands hand-marked paper ballots.
Sterling disagreed, pointing out the law only requires ballot-marking devices rather than the touchscreens and digital storage cards Georgians have become accustomed to. Sterling said the problem is that the law doesn't spell out what those devices should be.
"The problem we're running into now is a legislature couldn't decide amongst themselves, and having this ambiguity leaves a wide opening for the Democrats to take us to court again and try to put in their favored policy outcomes," Sterling said.
He went on.
"Because what they want to do is they want to come in, they want to get rid of voter ID, they want to get rid of our list maintenance, and they essentially want to let non-citizens and illegal aliens get on to the rolls,” he said. None of those positions were later supported during the debate between Democratic candidates.
Sterling tried repeatedly to shake off the allegations of impropriety in 2020.
"This is looking backwards,” he said. “Six years. We have to look forward now. We're in 2026. We had a record turnout yesterday for the beginning of early voting for a midterm election. The faith has been restored except for a small segment of Georgians. And we have a very good system."
During the Democratic debate, there was agreement that a return to some sort of paper ballot would likely be key to regaining the trust of any remaining skeptical Georgia voters.
“One of the things that I know is that the well has been poisoned with wrong information,” said Penny Brown Reynolds, who touted her careers as both a judge and a pastor. “And when you have no vote of confidence, that undermines the very system. I believe in printable, verifiable ballots. It's the only way that people can feel secure about the election.”
Current Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett called any lingering fears about election security a case of bad marketing.
“It's really about Republicans trying to convince us something is wrong when it isn't,” Barrett said. “I believe that we need some sort of a hybrid system where we will have machines doing the best part of the job that they can do while also having paper receipts, to give people the confidence that what they're putting in is what is being counted and that also those receipts can be used for a hand recount if necessary.”
While Republican candidates said Fulton County officials should have cooperated with federal efforts to look under the hood of how the 2020 election was conducted long before the FBI seized ballots from the Fulton County election board, Dana Barrett dismissed the episode outright.
“I saw the process firsthand, and it was a sham,” Barrett said. “And it was aimed at setting us up for a state takeover of our elections, which is extremely dangerous.”
Barrett later said she would attempt to convince the Legislature to reinstate the secretary of state as the chair of the State Election Board as a hedge against letting the Republican-dominated body take over elections in Fulton County.
The Democrats spent much of their remaining time picking over prospective details for how to revamp voting in Georgia. Cam Ashling offered what stood out as one of the few, if only, new ideas.
“I’d like to see the state of Georgia and our legislature and governor make Election Day a state holiday, at the very least,” Ashling said.
To watch this and other debates in this election cycle, visit www.gpb.org/election/press-club-debates.
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