ATLANTA — Georgia senators shot down a bill Friday that would have switched the state’s voting method to paper ballots filled out by hand before this November’s elections.
The bill’s defeat sets up a scramble for Georgia lawmakers to find a way to remove computer QR codes from ballots this year, as required by a state law passed two years ago.
The Senate voted 27-21 on the bill, two votes short of the majority needed for legislation to pass in the 56-member Senate. Seven senators skipped the vote following warnings of election “chaos” if it passed.
“We’re at an impasse,” said Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania. “If we ignore it again, we’re just going to kick the can. Sooner or later, folks, you have to pay the piper, and it’s time to remove the QR codes.”
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, speaks in favor of a Senate Bill 568, which would have required voters to use hand-marked paper ballots in November’s elections on Friday, March 6, 2026. The bill fell short of the majority needed to pass. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
All in-person Georgia voters use touchscreens that print out paper ballots, which are then tabulated by scanning machines that read a QR code. Critics of Georgia’s voting technology say the QR codes prevent voters from being able to ensure that their ballot accurately reflects their choices.
Hand-marked ballots are the main election day voting method in two-thirds of the United States, according to the election technology organization Verified Voting.
The effort to replace Georgia’s voting equipment, purchased for over $100 million before the 2020 election, is driven by a combination of election skeptics and election security advocates.
The legislation, Senate Bill 568, also would have limited early voting locations. Currently, Georgians can vote in advance of an election at any location in their county, but the bill would have assigned voters to one site to ensure the correct ballots are pre-printed for each jurisdiction.
“It would be chaos if we were to implement it this fast,” said Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain. “This bill is too hasty, it does not protect Georgians, and it fundamentally destabilizes our electoral system.”
Because SB 568 failed before Friday’s deadline for bills to pass at least one legislative chamber, either the state Senate or House, it’s likely dead this legislative session.
But it could be revived by amending a different elections bill that has advanced. One candidate is Senate Bill 214, a measure that cleared the Senate last year that would also require almost all Georgia voters to bubble in their choices instead of using touchscreen computers.
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, said lawmakers need to prioritize converting to hand-marked ballots now, before this year’s midterm elections.
“All we’ve heard is excuses,” Dolezal said. “Here we sit after having promised that we would do it after the last election, and it’s still not done. … I don’t think it’s ever going to be easy.”
Georgia’s primary election in May will still be held with the touchscreen voting technology, but the state law prohibiting QR-coded ballots goes into effect July 1.
ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate adopted legislation Friday that would encourage judges to think of regular people when considering disputes about contracts between electric utilities and big customers like data centers.
The legislation is aimed at shielding residential customers from Georgia Power’s costs to build new power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure as it ramps up to feed massive amounts of power to future data centers.
Democrats rejected the measure as fake protection.
Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, characterized Senate Bill 410 as “window dressing,” since it codifies what state regulators at the Public Service Commission have already been writing into contracts, rather than demanding other protections.
Consumer advocates have been critical of the commission because it voted in December to allow Georgia Power to add 10 gigawatts of power for data centers and because it allowed six rate hikes in recent years.
Critics contended that the contract terms would leave the public on the hook for expansion costs over the next half century if data centers failed to arrive in Georgia as promised — or left early.
“The public understands what is going on here and we are giving them the middle finger,” Parent said.
Republicans heralded SB 410 as an affordability measure that would protect rate payers. It would require that contracts include terms “designed to protect residential and retail electricity customers from costs associated with serving new large load customers … .”
Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, said critics of the legislation misinterpret it because of their disdain for Georgia Power, a monopoly electricity provider to a substantial proportion of the state population.
“Don’t let your hate for Georgia Power cloud your judgment on what this bill actually does,” he said on the Senate floor.
Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, answers questions about Senate Bill 410 in the Georgia Capitol after the Senate passed the legislation on Friday, March 6, 2026 . The bill addresses data center tax exemptions and sector effects on other electricity ratepayers. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
The bill attempts to fill gaps that were opened after Senate Bill 34, a measure that consumer advocates praised, was heavily amended. It initially prohibited electric utilities from recovering costs for serving data centers and other high-demand customers by raising rates on everyone else, including households and small businesses. It was revised by dropping the prohibition and leaving only the requirement that utility contracts protect residential and retail customers from large load costs.
During a committee hearing on SB 410 on Tuesday, Brass explained that the protective language in the bill would not be in law, but judges could find it in the preamble to the legislation in case someone sued.
“It will be in the notes to the code,” he said. “And the notes to the code can be used by the courts to help guide the courts’ interpretation of our law.”
Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, the author of SB 34, chairs the committee that heard SB 410.
“The intent of the legislature is here. It’s not codified into law, which would be my preference,” he said at the hearing. “But it’s basically what’s been worked out.”
Sen. Mike Hodges, R-Brunswick, a member of the committee, asked any lawyer on the panel to explain the legal implications of a preamble.
Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, a lawyer, explained that some courts ignore legislative intent while others consider it, and those that do would check the Legislature’s notes.
“So,” asked Hodges, “it might matter and it might not?”
“That’s fair,” Tillery responded.
SB 410 would also abolish tax exemptions for computer equipment and other technology used by future data centers, although existing centers could keep their exemptions.
Sen. Sonya Halpern, D-Atlanta, a member of the committee, raised concerns about that, saying the tax breaks had been “instrumental” in attracting Fortune 500 companies to Georgia.
Nonetheless, she voted to pass SB 410 out of the committee, which comprises several Democrats. The vote was unanimous.
But on the Senate floor Friday, Halpern and all the other Democrats who chose to vote went against SB 410. All Republicans voted for it. It passed 32-21. Later, Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, said Democrats had voted against ending corporate subsidies that would cost the state general fund $1.3 billion.
“The Democrats can sit there and debate all they want, but that’s what they voted against ultimately,” he said in a meeting with reporters.
Anavitarte, the Senate majority leader, said Republicans had just won on the main issue for voters this year, affordability. He nodded to the major upset in November when two GOP members of the Public Service Commission suffered defeat by Democrats who attacked them over those half dozen electricity rate increases. For the first time in years, Democrats were joining the five-member commission, albeit as a minority that would not be in control.
Even so, Republicans saw it as a warning for other elections: take affordability seriously.
“It’s no secret. You all know where the public sentiment is,” Anavitarte said. “I know where it is in my district. And people are tired of politicians making bad decisions. That’s why two members of the PSC were un-elected — because they did not vote in the interests of Georgians.”
ATLANTA — Republicans in the Georgia Senate passed a bill Friday that bans candidates from raising more than half of their campaign money from outside of the state, a limitation that Democrats said inhibits their fundraising in nationalized elections.
Sen. Timothy Bearden, R-Carrollton, said the bill is about preventing non-Georgians from influencing Georgia elections — not about targeting Democrats.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 33-21 to pass Senate Bill 423, sending it to the state House.
“This legislation promotes greater transparency in campaign finance, curbs the influence of dark money and ensures Georgia elections are driven by Georgians, not by outside forces,” Bearden said. “This measure promotes transparency without prohibiting speech.”
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said Republicans are using their political power to change campaign finance rules for their benefit.
“This is a bald attempt to say that if any Democratic candidate has national support, they need to cut it out,” McLaurin said. “Money is money y’all, and big money distorts politics, and this bill does nothing about that.”
Democratic candidates in high-profile Georgia races have often received more money than Republican candidates in recent years, according to campaign finance records.
If the bill also passes the state House and is signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, violations could be prosecuted as felonies with punishments up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
That measure, House Bill 414, would allow the Georgia Ethics Commission to seek subpoenas against groups or individuals in other states who are suspected of breaking Georgia campaign finance laws, such as contribution limits or transparency requirements. HB 414 is now pending with Kemp.
ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate approved a bill Friday that broadens “stand your ground” self-defense protections, a proposal that critics said would help protect defendants such as those who murdered Ahmaud Arbery.
The 30-23 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans supporting the rights of Georgians to use force when needed during confrontations.
The legislation, Senate Bill 572, would allow people to claim immunity from prosecution soon after they’re charged, and cases involving claims of self-defense would only continue if there’s clear and convincing evidence of a crime.
Democrats opposed the bill, saying it would further empower those accused of wrongdoing during shootings.
They cited the case of Arbery, a Black man who was killed while jogging in Brunswick in 2020 by three white men, one of whom was a former police officer.
“If this bill had been law, it would have made it very difficult to prosecute those who are the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery,” said state Sen. Kim Jackson, D-Stone Mountain.
State Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, said the bill is needed to ensure that those accused of crimes are presumed innocent until found guilty.
“Those that murdered Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Even though they tried to raise this defense, the jury still said they were guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Strickland said.
ATLANTA — Before she was ousted by President Donald Trump, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem got grilled by a Georgia congresswoman about the way her agency had treated a Loganville man with severe disabilities.
Double amputee Rodney Taylor had been in federal custody for over a year, since agents swarmed the family vehicle and seized him in January 2025.
The husband and father of two was brought to America from Liberia at age 2 for medical treatment. He was born with a deformed left foot, a missing right foot, and three fingers missing from his right hand. He had lived without both legs since they were amputated when he was a child.
Mildred Pierre, wife of Rodney Taylor, at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on Jan. 13, 2026 (Ty Tagami/Capitol Beat)
Taylor, 47, received a criminal conviction as a teenager, which led to his detention by the federal agents. But Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, said at Noem’s hearing Wednesday that former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue had pardoned him and that Taylor had a Green Card application pending. She also said he had been held at the Stewart Detention Center in squalid conditions.
Under the care of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Taylor lost 20 pounds, so his prosthetic legs no longer fit, McBath said. The agency made him drag himself to the shower, in less than sanitary conditions, she added.
“Rodney must crawl through that muck and squalor of feces and bodily fluids to enter and exit the shower,” she said. “This is despicable. It’s inhumane torture that no person should have to endure.”
Noem said she was unaware of his case but promised to research it and get back to McBath and Taylor’s wife within two weeks.
That probably will not happen now that Trump has removed Noem.
Taylor is married to a U.S. citizen, Mildred Pierre, and they have two young children.
Pierre went to the Georgia Capitol in January in hopes of drawing attention to her husband’s plight. She said then that she feared for his health. She said he had elevated blood pressure due to the conditions in detention.
“I’m scared they’re going to send him home in a box,” she said.
Taylor is a barber and was the main breadwinner, she said. His conviction for burglary was long behind him and he was a family man when his life was upended, she said.
The kids were 4 and 6 when federal agents surrounded the family vehicle two houses down the street from their home, boxing them in with unmarked vehicles and emerging with ballistic vests and no identification, she said.
“It was scary because they all had their guns and my kids were in the car,” she said. The children were crying and inconsolable, she said.
She said they get to visit him in detention on occasion but that they are separated by glass and talk over a telecommunications system.
ATLANTA — Bryce Berry could not understand why his student was misbehaving.
The youth excelled on his assignments, but he disrupted the classroom. Eventually, the student explained that he could not see the board. Thus enlightened, Berry arranged an eye exam and a free pair of glasses.
Problem solved. A life changed.
“I think about how many other students across Georgia are being mislabeled or mis-disciplined or left behind simply because no one caught something as basic as vision or a hearing issue,” said Berry, a middle school math teacher who joined the Georgia House of Representatives last year.
Rep. Berry, D-Atlanta, told that story during a floor debate in the Georgia House of Representatives on Wednesday.
It was a rare moment of bipartisan solidarity, a meeting of the minds on a root cause of academic under-achievement.
Rep. Leesa Hagan, R-Lyons, had brought a bill to the House that would require annual vision and hearing screenings at school, from pre-kindergarten through third grade.
Currently, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) requires parents to submit a form when their child enters school for the first time, confirming that all the necessary screenings, including for eyes and ears, have occurred.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said there may not be universal compliance.
“I think part of the problem is, in some areas of our state, they may have a form, they may not have a form,” he said, “but children are not being screened.”
And eyes change over time, so children, especially little ones, may have worsening vision that goes unnoticed in the years after they enter a school.
Rep. Angie O’Steen, R-Ambrose, shared a story about her own daughter.
“Her vision problem didn’t show up until second grade,” the former school nurse said. “She could not see. She could not read. So thankfully, this bill will address that.”
House Bill 1402, which passed 172-1 on Wednesday, would both mandate the screenings and grant each school system $15,000 to acquire the necessary equipment.
“What we understand from DPH and from some of the schools that we’ve talked to is there’s a need to do it at the school to make sure every student is screened,” Hagan said. “It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it’s worth it if to identify any issues that are hindering their learning.”
The legislation would require that parents be informed ahead of the screenings, so they have an opportunity to opt out.
The measure also would require school systems to notify parents if their child is not reading on grade level by the end of third grade. In that way, it dovetails with a priority in the House and Senate to improve literacy rates.
Last month, the House passed House Bill 1193, sending it to the Senate. The vote was 170-2 — another display of bipartisanship. That legislation would give school districts the funding to hire about 1,300 literacy coaches, with the intent of sending each of them into schools with K-3 classrooms.
