Since the 2020 Election, the Georgia General Assembly Has Changed the State’s Election Laws at an Unrelenting Pace, Creating an Undue Burden on County Administrators
Georgia passed an omnibus elections bill, SB 202, in 2021, making 98 pages’ worth of changes to the election code, but the changes did not stop there.
In 2023, the legislature passed a ban on all private sources of election funding to county administrators, via SB 222. Also in 2023, the governor vetoed $550,000 in appropriations for the secretary of state, funding which the legislature had allocated to support county administrators in onboarding to a data plan contract.
In 2024, the state passed three separate election bills making sweeping changes to the law governing voter challenges, voting machine requirements, security paper, scanners and QR codes, via SB 189, HB 974 and HB 1207. Also in 2024, the State Election Board (SEB) made headlines by passing a wave of new and significant rules impacting certification and tabulation immediately before the November election, though many of those were blocked in court.
This is not an exhaustive list; the legislature has also passed numerous local election bills to reshape the makeup of county election boards since 2021.
This pace has been relentless. When the code is changed this fast and this frequently, it places a heavy burden on county election officials. These actions inject uncertainty into county budgeting, procurement, training and implementation, creating an overall atmosphere of financial instability.
The research was conducted in equal partnership with the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda.
Thanks to Marisa Pyle of All Voting is Local for their support with this paper.
We’ve got new rules, new regs, new requirements, new forms, new ballot paper, new rules from the SEB. There’s so many bells and whistles now, it’s astonishing. I’m not saying that’s all wrong. But it gets to a tipping point, I think.”
— Billy Wooten, Chatham County Elections Supervisor
Rapid Legislative Changes to the Election Code Create Unnecessary Waste and Financial Strain at the County Level
In 2024, the legislature passed a last-minute bill requiring the already-mandated security paper used in Georgia elections to now include an additional watermark feature.
Well, we didn’t know that was coming, as the election office. So some counties had already purchased a year’s worth of paper. One county that I know of had bought $60,000 worth of paper.”
— Tammy Whitmire, Rabun County Elections & Voter Registration Director
The legislature did not provide funding to cover the new paper purchasing costs.
They implemented this as an unfunded mandate. All the paper you had purchased to get ready for that year’s worth of elections … you had to prove that you had shredded it or burned it.”
— Tammy Whitmire, Rabun County Elections & Voter Registration Director
The incident exemplifies the waste and tradeoffs that unfunded, last-minute legislative mandates can create.
You could have refixed a part of the road for that. And all of it was shredded or burned. […] 159 counties had to get rid of that paper.”
— Tammy Whitmire, Rabun County Elections & Voter Registration Director
Paper may sound like a small line item, but when purchased at the scale required for statewide election administration, it is far from a negligible cost.
Rapid Legislative and SEB Rule Changes to the Election Code Also Create Difficulties in the Poll Worker Training Process
Elections supervisors across the state noted how the endlessly changing legislative and rulemaking directives significantly burden the poll worker training process.
To say that elections has moved and moved quickly is an understatement. […] It seems like we’re always trying to catch up. The laws are constantly changing.You’re barely getting your poll workers really confident that they know how to use the equipment and all of a sudden you’re using all new equipment. Since I’ve held this job, I feel like we’ve always been in a learning curve.”
— Tammy Whitmire, Rabun County Elections & Voter Registration Director
We have to start training poll workers next week. So you start the training, really, about two months out. […] Anything that comes up that is a sudden last-minute change, we’ve already had our training.”
— Billy Wooten, Chatham County Elections Supervisor
These challenges must be understood in the broader context of difficulties with poll worker recruitment and retention. Earlier in this series, we noted the high attrition rates counties are already contending with: Up to 30% of poll workers will drop out of the pipeline between training and Election Day. Last-minute changes that complicate the training process are likely to only worsen this attrition rate.
Almost All Election Bills Passed by the Legislature in Recent Years Are Unfunded Mandates Without Fiscal Notes
It bears repeating: The state has not funded any of the major election bills it has passed since the 2020 election. County election administrators are losing money as they scramble to keep up with the changes, but instead of supplementing those losses, the state is exacerbating them. The legislature has not publicized fiscal notes for the majority of these bills, since fiscal notes are generated on the basis of impact to the state budget. This means neither the state nor the counties are able to plan for how much legislation will cost counties to implement before it has already gone into effect.
The State Also Creates Unfunded Mandates for the Counties Each Time It Calls a Special Election
Special elections and runoffs present unique challenges. When the state calls a special election, we are required to conduct [it] regardless of our current budget. Unfortunately, the legislature does not opt in to fund these special called elections, which places an unexpected financial burden on our department.”
— Ronda Walthour, Liberty County Chief Registrar/Elections Supervisor
Special elections, in and of themselves, are unavoidable. Some fraction of elected officials will inevitably retire, resign or die in office in a given time period. However, Georgia, unlike its neighboring states, does not reimburse counties for surprise expenses incurred when a special election is called. This means special elections in Georgia become unfunded mandates.
Georgia’s Private Funding Ban Increases the Counties’ Urgent Need for State or Federal Funding Assistance
While the state has created unfunded mandates for the counties through legislative changes and special elections, it has simultaneously restricted the counties’ ability to source funding.
Georgia banned private election funding in 2023 in SB 222. County election administrators are prevented from accepting any outside funding or grants; they are now only permitted to accept grants from the state or federal governments. This cut off counties from millions of philanthropic dollars. The state has not provided a replacement for those lost funds.
The federal government can also provide financial support to the counties, under the conditions of SB 222. However, in Georgia, federal election administration grants go directly to the secretary of state’s office; the majority of the money is not passed down to the counties.
Other Southern states with bans on private election funding have created carve-outs to support their election administrators. Alabama, for example, has an exception to its private funding ban in the case of public health emergencies.
Grant funding and legislative support are absolutely essential to meet the growing demands of our department. Over the past five years, we’ve taken on several additional responsibilities that come with significant costs. […] without consistent funding streams, it becomes difficult to sustain these vital efforts. Legislative funding and targeted grants would go a long way in helping us continue to serve our electors effectively and safely.”
— Ronda Walthour, Liberty County Chief Registrar/Elections Supervisor
Recommendations
The state government should be a source of stability, not volatility, for Georgia election administrators.
The state of Georgia should:
- Require that all election-related bills be accompanied by a fiscal note that accounts for county implementation costs before the bills’ final passage, to support election administrators’ ability to forecast their expenses.
- Establish a 90-day quiet period for SEB rules before statewide elections, so as not to interfere with poll worker training and voter education.
- Reimburse counties for the costs of special elections called outside of the regular election calendar.
- Earmark a dedicated revenue stream for election administration, which counties can access, to make up for the financial strain caused by the state’s private funding ban.
- Create an exception to the state’s private funding ban for elections when a natural disaster or public health emergency has been declared.
Additionally, the federal government should:
- Pass through a portion of the available election administration grant funding directly to county election offices.