Blake Evans
Coverage of Blake Evans in the Nexus archive.
- State Election Board passes resolution allowing counties to switch to hand-marked ballots
Georgia’s State Election Board passed a resolution allowing counties to use hand-marked paper ballots ahead of the 2026 general election, conflicting with the secretary of state’s guidance requiring continued use of current voting machines. The non-binding 3-1 vote aims to address potential delays in updating the state’s ballot QR code system under Senate Bill 189, which prohibits QR codes for official counts after July 1. The resolution contradicts instructions from Elections Director Blake Evans, who emphasized counties must follow existing procedures.
- Georgia officials kicked off an audit of this month’s election. What does that actually entail?
Georgia officials initiated a risk-limiting audit of the May 19 primary election, using 10-sided dice to randomly select ballots for manual verification. The process, open to the public, aims to confirm machine-tallied results by checking ballot QR codes and human-readable text, with two races—Republican U.S. Senate primary and Democratic governor primary—selected for review.