State election panel recommends ending no-excuse absentee voting in Georgia

When Georgia’s State Election Board considered a proposal to recommend that state lawmakers ban no-excuse absentee voting early last year, the Republican-dominated body shot it down, with then-newly appointed Chair John Fervier casting the deciding vote. But in a Wednesday meeting in Atlanta, a trio of Trump-aligned board members successfully approved a similar proposal in […]

The Georgia State Election Board voted to recommend that the state Legislature end no-excuse absentee voting at a Wednesday meeting. Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder

When Georgia’s State Election Board considered a proposal to recommend that state lawmakers ban no-excuse absentee voting early last year, the Republican-dominated body shot it down, with then-newly appointed Chair John Fervier casting the deciding vote.

But in a Wednesday meeting in Atlanta, a trio of Trump-aligned board members successfully approved a similar proposal in a narrow 3-2 vote. The board will now officially recommend that the state Legislature end a practice that was adopted in Georgia back in 2005 when it reconvenes in January for the 2026 legislative session. 

A record number of Georgians voted by mail-in ballot during the 2020 presidential election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the years since, absentee voting has come under increased scrutiny from Trump and his supporters, who blamed his loss in 2020 on unfounded accusations of rampant voting fraud. 

Board member Janice Johnston, a GOP appointee who introduced the recommendation, said Wednesday that absentee voting “should be the exception rather than the rule,” arguing that it poses a higher risk of voter fraud. She also appeared before a House “blue-ribbon” study committee on elections last week and urged them to end the practice, calling absentee voting “the biggest risk in the election system.”

Multiple investigations have found no evidence of widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia despite widespread use of absentee voting.

“We cannot guarantee secrecy of the ballot if it is in someone’s home or in someone’s apartment foyer or in someone’s post office box,” she said during Wednesday’s board meeting. “We can do much better with protecting the voter and the ballot if they’re in the secure polling place.”

She also argued that Georgia’s three-week early voting period makes absentee voting unnecessary.

President Donald Trump, who previously praised Johnston and fellow board members Rick Jeffares and Janelle King as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory,” during a 2024 campaign rally, has also called for an end to mail-in ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

But Fervier vehemently opposed the recommendation, arguing that restrictions on absentee ballot access would place an unnecessary burden on voters, particularly low-income voters.

“There are a lot of people out there that work seven days a week to feed their families, make ends meet — especially now — and restricting their access to absentee voting is not fair to those people,” Fervier said.

“When you have to earn a dollar every day to feed your family, you can’t take a day off to go vote,” he added.

Sara Tindall Ghazal, the only Democratic member of the board, also opposed the proposal, arguing that there wasn’t a clear reason to change the law and noting that absentee ballots only account for a small percentage of votes cast in Georgia. During the 2024 election, roughly 5% of voters cast an absentee ballot.

“I find it ironic that, with the tremendous push for hand-marked paper ballots, that we’re actually trying to restrict access to the one lawful method of using hand-marked paper ballots,” she added.

The board also voted 3-1 to recommend that the Legislature limit the amount of time overseas and military voters have to return absentee ballots. Currently, ballots cast by Georgia voters who live overseas will be counted if they are received within three days of Election Day, so long as they are postmarked before the election. Johnston’s proposal recommends that the legislature only count ballots from overseas voters that are received by 7 p.m. on election day.

New rulemaking process begins

The board also voted 2-0 to begin the rulemaking process for a bipartisan proposal that aims to clarify the circumstances under which voters can use paper ballots rather than ballot-marking devices.

The proposal, which would outline definitions for “impossible” and “impracticable” uses of voting equipment, was presented by Salleigh Grubbs, the first vice-chair of the Georgia GOP, and Jeanne Dufort, the chair of the Morgan County Democrats, who said that adding in definitions would help election officials better understand how to comply with state laws. They developed the language in the proposal alongside board members Jeffares and Ghazal, as well as election lawyer Bryan L. Sells, who did not respond to a request for comment.

“We don’t agree on much,” Dufort said. “But on this matter, we agree wholeheartedly, and that is that our election officials deserve certainty.”

However, Ghazal expressed concern about the proposal’s wording. 

The language in the proposed rule, she said, “goes beyond the scope of what the Legislature intended to consider impossible and impractical, which I see as unexpected circumstances that arise fairly suddenly.”

Ghazal abstained from voting on the measure.

The proposed rule is now open for a mandatory 30-day public comment period, meaning that board members can’t move forward with the rule during their next two meetings, scheduled for Nov. 7 and Nov. 12, respectively. The next meeting where the board could take action on the proposed rule is set for December.

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