State lawmakers wrapped up another marathon hearing on Georgia’s election procedures Thursday, ahead of possible legislative changes next year.
The House election procedures committee spent four hours in Americus hearing presentations from nearly a dozen advocates, experts, and officials, and listening to brief comments from more than two dozen members of the public.
The themes were like commentary from prior hearings, where people with suspicions about election integrity urged the state to move to hand-marked, hand-counted ballots, while others urged lawmakers to avoid making changes to accommodate what they saw as unfounded conspiracy theories.
The hearing featured a clash between the only Democrat on the House panel and Janice Johnston, an appointee on the State Election Board (SEB) who has expressed concerns about the accuracy of election results.
Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta, confronted Johnston for what she saw as inconsistent SEB rulings on election complaints.
Draper noted that the board in 2023 had dismissed complaints that Herschel Walker had bought votes when his campaign for U.S. Senate handed out $25 gas cards to potential voters, yet had decided recently that Lyft had violated the law by offering discounted rides to voters during elections.
When Draper asked Johnston a hypothetical question — whether she would allow Geoff Duncan, a Democrat running for governor, to hand out gas cards to potential voters — Johnston did not answer. Instead, she said she did not know who he was.
Duncan is Georgia’s former lieutenant governor, a Republican who recently switched parties.