Georgia voters will see pen and paper at polls

Attentive Georgia voters will notice something different when they go to their polling places on Election Day: pen and paper.

Poll workers will log each voter in electronically, but they will also be recording voters’ names on a backup log using pen and paper.

The retro method is required by a rule adopted in June by the State Election Board, the appointed body that establishes voting procedures in Georgia.

Approved in a 4-0 vote by the five-member Republican-controlled board, with the support of the lone Democrat, the measure was introduced after digital check-in failures during the May primary.

“This will be your paper document to refer back to if there’s an audit, if there’s a forensic audit,” then-board member Janice Johnston said at the meeting, according to the official transcript.

“Now, will it be perfect? No,” said Johnston, who subsequently stepped down from the board. “Someone will forget to write a name down, but it is the paper document to go back to.”

Anne Dover, the election director in Cherokee County, one of the largest counties in Georgia, said this week that she was concerned the requirement could slow the check-in process and result in longer lines.

Dover also worried about errors. Many of her poll workers are retirees in their 70s. She has asked them to write legibly but noted they will be recording hundreds of names on a busy Election Day.

“I feel like they will — whoever they are that are so concerned about this, I think we know who it is — they will get the electronic version of the numbered list, which they always have access to, it comes from the poll books, and they will take that list and try to compare it with the written numbered list. And if they see any discrepancies, we’ll be before the state election board,” said Dover, who has been doing this work for two decades.

“And I can promise you that, especially in these larger counties like ours, there will be mistakes,” she said.

Robert Sinners, a spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the top election official in Georgia, also said he expects delays.

“This additional step may slow down the check-in process,” he said.