ATLANTA (Georgia Recorder) — A Georgia GOP-controlled Senate panel Thursday greenlighted a revised version of a wide-ranging bill packed with controversial provisions that no longer include plans to hand voter challenge complaints to state election officials and enforce new ballot counting methods.
House Bill 397, which still contains several controversial rule changes, passed the Senate Ethics Committee Thursday night with four Democratic senators voting against it.
The bill has been criticized for limiting voters’ ability to drop off absentee ballots on the final weekend before Election Day and other proposed changes to election law.
The bill’s sponsor, Covington Republican Rep. Tim Fleming, said he also decided to remove a new election night ballot counting rule after local election supervisors testified Wednesday that a tight Election Day counting deadline would place unfair burdens on election staffers and present chain of custody challenges.
The bill still aims to ban the state from participating in third-party voter list-sharing databases like the Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC. Georgia secretary of state officials are asking legislators to maintain what they say has been a successful partnership that allows Georgia to share updated voter rolls with 24 other states.
Under HB 397, the Georgia elections board would evaluate the procedures and policies for withdrawing from ERIC and provide recommendations to the legislative committees.
READ HB 397
Fleming’s updated bill would delay the state’s transition from the multi-state voter database. It now proposes July 1, 2027 as the implementation date for Georgia to transition to another system. It allows for additional time to find a new way during legislative sessions in 2026 and 2027 and following next year’s general election, Fleming said.
“If there is a new secretary of state, it gives them time to work with this legislative body to implement what we have asked them to do,” Fleming said.
The revised bill would still give the controversial State Election Board new rulemaking authority and independence. However, it no longer would hand appeals to voter eligibility challenges to the board. The appeals are currently resolved in Superior Courts.
Sen. Derrick Mallow, a Savannah Democrat, questioned whether the election board could take over election rulemaking powers that rightfully reside with the General Assembly.
Ethics committee Chairman Sam Watson, a Moultrie Republican, credited Fleming and HB 397’s co-sponsor, Rep. Victor Anderson, for incorporating some key recommendations into the election bill.
“They listened to a lot of concerns that we heard last night for two hours, and they took those concerns back, and now they’ve got a good bill that I think we can move forward with,” Watson said.
