New wave of Georgia election bills targets ‘Zuckerbucks’ and bar codes

Proposals would also bar election workers who are not citizens.

Republican Georgia senators rolled out a package of bills Thursday that continue to focus on perceived flaws in the 2020 presidential election, attempting to restrict outside money, eliminate votes scanned from bar codes and ban foreigners from being hired as election workers.

The proposals come two years after lawmakers enacted a far-reaching overhaul to Georgia voting laws following Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow victory over Republican Donald Trump.

The Senate Ethics Committee debated five election-related bills Thursday but didn’t decide on them. Votes could be scheduled as soon as Monday.

Supporters said the bills would build trust among voters that elections are secure and accurate, while voting rights groups said the proposals are driven by conspiracy theorists who will never accept that Trump lost his reelection bid in 2020.

Three exacting vote counts showed Biden won by about 12,000 votes, and multiple investigations have dispelled allegations of fraud.

One bill would prohibit county governments from accepting donations to help conduct elections from organizations, a reaction to millions of dollars contributed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s nonprofit organization, the Center for Tech and Civic Life.

Republicanbackers of theidea object to so-called “Zuckerbucks” funding, which they say benefited Democratic-run counties more than rural Gop-leaning areas. The organization gave a total of $43 million in 2020.

While Democratic-leaning counties got more money, the organization has said it didn’t discriminate: It gave money to any county that asked.

While the Georgia election law adopted in 2021 already bars direct outside funding of election operations, Dekalb County’s government accepted a $2 million grant this year and distributed it to the county’s election office.

“We have to ensure the funding of our elections comes from lawfully appropriated public funds,” said Senate Ethics Chairman Max Burns, a Republican from Sylvania. “The intent is to prohibit third parties’ selective funding of elections.”

Lana Goitia Paz of the voter advocacy group All Voting Is Local told senators that election workers often need outside funding as costs continue to rise beyond county governments’ budgets.

“In 2020, grant funding provided election-saving resources for counties in the midst of a global pandemic,” she said. “This bill aims to needlessly rid us of financial resources that counties might not otherwise have. It is crucial that we do not cut off lifelines to our elections officials.”

Another bill would require Georgia’s voting system to scan ballots without having to rely on QR codes, often called bar codes, which are unreadable to the human eye.

Election integrity advocates and skeptics alike say voters should be able to know that the scanner is reading their choices, but state election officials say the change would cost millions of dollars without improving security.

“The issue is, what I see is what I vote. It’s a trust issue,” said state Sen. Marty Harbin, a Republican from Tyrone. “You have to trust the system.”

State Sen. Derek Mallow, a Democrat from Savannah, said he’s concerned that changes to voting technology would do more to undermine confidence in elections. “This could potentially create more issues of distrust in elections because we can’t keep changing things that are working well,” Mallow said.

One proposal would require anyone employed in a county election office to be a U.S. citizen.

State Sen. Brandon Beach, a Republican from Alpharetta, said the bill is a reaction to a Nigerian who worked as a technician in Fulton County’s election office.

Other initiatives would make less controversial adjustments to election processes, requiring audits after primaries as well as general elections, giving local election offices more time to report the total number of ballots cast on election night, and clarifying wording on absentee ballot applications to say “THIS IS NOT A BALLOT.”

Burns said he’s not inclined to move forward with other ideas, such as limiting Saturday voting before runoff elections after a holiday, which was an issue last fall in the U.S. Senate runoff. The Georgia Supreme Court ultimately allowed Saturday voting in counties that chose to offer it.

The legislation also isn’t intended to allow public inspections of original paper ballots, Burns said, but he supports an online method for voters to be able to view digital ballot images. Funding for a statewide ballot image repository is included in the state’s proposed budget.