New voting system put to test before 2020 switch

DALLAS, GA. » Voters and election supervisors testing Georgia’s new voting machines gave favorable reviews Tuesday, despite some opening glitches reported by five of six pilot counties, as the state rushes to meet a court-ordered deadline to retire its outdated, paperless system before any votes are cast in 2020.

State election officials piloted the $106 million system that combines touchscreens with paper ballots in six mostly rural counties holding elections for mayors, city councils and school boards. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger plans to use the new machines in all 159 counties for Georgia’s presidential primaries in March.

Georgia elections next year will be closely watched nationally after the officials faced a torrent of criticism in 2018. Problems included hourslong waits at some polling sites, security breaches that left voters’ registration information exposed and accusations that strict ID matching requirements and registration errors suppressed turnout. That led to lawsuits and changes in state law that included switching election systems.

Judges ordered two counties testing the new equipment to keep polls open late, and a third county kept a single precinct open 30 extra minutes after electronic poll books used to check in voters malfunctioned as polls opened Tuesday morning.

Decatur County elections supervisor Carol Heard said voting was delayed about 45 minutes.