Lawmakers discuss voting system update

ATLANTA (FOX 5 Atlanta) - So many people showed up to take part in a Georgia House subcommittee meeting about voting machines Tuesday that state officials had to open an overflow viewing room.

The House Governmental Affairs Elections Subcommittee met to hear House Bill 316, which would require the state to update its aging voting system.

Under the measure, Georgia would move to "electronic ballot markers."  Voters would input their choices on a touch screen and the machine would print out a piece of paper with their votes reflected.  The voter would then turn that piece of paper over to poll workers to be counted. 

"It builds on the success of our old system and incorporates the best practices of modern day and it is a clear choice, I think, for Georgia voters," said Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, the bill's primary sponsor. 

Many Georgians, however, feel that voters would be better served if the state went back to hand-marked paper ballots. But Fleming said hand-marked ballots can leave too much up to interpretation.

"Reverting back to any other form of voting system, including a pencil-marked ballot could easily force our state into a situation that we don't want to recall like Florida in 2000," said Fleming.

The subcommittee will meet again Wednesday to hear more public comment on the bill.