Barcodes Stir Anxiety As Georgia Eyes New Voting System

Hart Intercivic is one of several election technology companies that hired lobbyists at the Georgia Capitol this year. It is also one of the companies that demonstrated to state lawmakers how Georgia could replace its electronic voting machines.

Johnny Kauffman / WABE

As Republican and Democratic state legislators hustle to pass a law moving Georgia toward paper ballot voting technology, election integrity advocates said they’re concerned a bill that already cleared the state Senate could lead to a new vulnerability in Georgia’s next voting system, if it becomes law.

One way a new system might work is through a touchscreen computer similar to those currently used in Georgia. It would print a paper ballot with a visual representation of a voter’s choices so they themselves can check for accuracy.

In some systems, counting the votes means scanning an entire image of the ballot that may include a timestamp and precinct information.