Bill > SB568

This bill makes several changes to Georgia's election laws, primarily focusing on transparency and the integrity of the voting process. Key provisions include requiring that the list of eligible voters be made public at least five days before early voting begins, and imposing civil fines of up to $10,000 per instance on registrars who fail to remove ineligible voters after a successful challenge. It also updates the requirements for election equipment, mandating the use of optical scanning voting systems with paper ballots and infrared detectors for counterfeit ballots starting July 1, 2026, while ensuring accessible electronic ballot markers are available for voters with disabilities. The bill also revises ballot design rules, allowing for timing marks to help scanners determine voter selections and requiring unique lines connecting candidate names to their chosen ovals. Furthermore, it mandates that if a jurisdiction uses multiple early voting locations, each location will be assigned specific precincts, and only voters registered in those precincts can cast ballots there. After polls close, a list of all voters who cast ballots will be posted publicly and maintained in an archival database by the Secretary of State, and scanned ballot images will be posted with additional data. The bill also modifies recount procedures, lowering the threshold for a mandatory recount to a 1% vote difference and specifying that recounts must be conducted manually. Finally, it revises rules for risk-limiting audits, which are statistical audits designed to ensure election outcomes are correct, expanding the types of contests subject to these audits and allowing for manual inspection of all ballots cast in certain situations, while clarifying the roles of the State Election Board and the Secretary of State in overseeing these audits.