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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 2025
Coalition for Good Governance Urges Pilot of Hand-Marked Ballots in November 2025 Elections
ATLANTA, GA – August 26, 2025 – Nonpartisan Coalition for Good Governance (CGG) today announced its strong support for the proposal in front of Georgia House of Representative’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Election Procedures, urging the Committee vote to support a voluntary pilot program of hand-marked paper ballots in the November 2025 statewide Public Service Commission election and the December local runoff elections.
In a letter to Chairman Tim Fleming and the Committee, CGG stressed that such a pilot, originally proposed by the Georgia Republican Party, is a timely and prudent step to secure Georgia’s elections, improve transparency, and facilitate the state’s mandated transition away from QR coded ballots.
Why the pilot matters now
Georgia law requires that by July 1, 2026, ballots may no longer contain barcodes encoding votes. Hand marked ballots are the only feasible and secure way to meet the objective. As CGG noted in its letter to the Committee, “We believe such a pilot program is a timely, prudent and necessary step to address election security and prepare for the state's transition away from unverifiable voting technology. As a non-partisan organization, our primary concern is the security, verifiability, and transparency of the electoral process, and we see this proposed pilot as a crucial opportunity to gather empirical data that will benefit all stakeholders.”
Key components of the proposed pilot:
- Hand-marked paper ballots as the primary method of voting.
- Ballot-on-demand printers for large early voting centers to manage multiple ballot styles efficiently and securely.
- Updated, more secure precinct scanner software to protect voter privacy by preventing ballot images from being linked to individual voters.
- Updated electronic ballot marking devices (BMDs) available in all precincts for accessibility needs.
- Data collection on training, costs, administrative efficiency, accuracy, and voter satisfaction.
- Volunteer pilot counties permitted to participate in one or both elections, with December runoff pilots allowing improvements after the November pilot.
If the pilot plan is adopted, CGG will propose piloting of more comprehensive and efficient Risk Limiting Audit methods for transparent verification of the outcomes of the election contests.
2026 Midterm Elections
CGG’s Executive Director, Marilyn Marks, stated, “Given the proven security vulnerabilities of the BMD system, the sure-to-be-contentious 2026 elections must provide strong verifiable evidence of who won all races, which is not possible with the current BMD system. The current system simply cannot provide such evidence to survive court challenges, particularly after the system was compromised in 2021 through the unauthorized access and distribution of the statewide software. Hand marked ballots, counted by scanner, with audited outcomes are the only manner of conducting a secure election. A well run pilot is a solid first step to move Georgia to secure 2026 elections.”
CGG called on the Committee to act at its August 28 meeting by formally asking the Secretary of State to conduct the pilot program and to encourage the State Election Board to lend its support.
About Coalition for Good Governance
Coalition for Good Governance is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to secure, transparent, and verifiable elections for all voters, ensuring compliance with the law and the right to a secret ballot.
Contact:
Marilyn Marks
Executive Director
Coalition for Good Governance
Marilyn@uscgg.org
678-221-1672
About Coalition for Good Governance
Coalition for Good Governance is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting voters’ rights to secure, fair, and transparent elections with verifiable outcomes. The Coalition works to ensure that every voter can cast a completely secret ballot and have confidence in the accuracy and integrity of election results.
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