As officials prepare for election law changes, they say voter experience won't change in November

Caption

Elections Director Blake Evans rolls dice as part of the process to randomly select ballots to be audited.

Credit: Sarah Kallis/GPB News

Elections officials are preparing for changes in election laws after Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill laying the groundwork for a new voting system in 2028 and expanding ballot audits in this year’s midterms in November.

Despite changes to Georgia’s elections laws, Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials President Joseph Kirk said voters won’t notice a difference when they cast ballots this year. 

"We have a good voting system in Georgia," he said. "The voters seem to like it, they know how to use it, and going into November, December, if there's a runoff, nothing's going to change from their perspective. Most of the changes happen after they leave."

One of those changes expands risk-limiting audits. 

Once the bill is signed, races for president, Senate, governor, Congress, lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general will all be audited.

Georgia Elections Director Blake Evans said counties are well-prepared for the increase in audits.

“Our counties have been doing this since 2020," Evans said. "And so they really have become accustomed and involved in and know the process of conducting risk limiting audits really well."

Currently, the secretary of state’s office randomly selects batches of ballots for certain contests to be audited, and counties then compare the readable text of ballots in those batches to the machine counts to verify their accuracy. 

Also in the bill: a hand recount if a top of ticket race margin of victory is within half a percentage point.

Kirk said county elections officials are busy hammering out procedures to prepare for that possibility. 

"If it does happen, we have a lot of work ahead of us," he said.