Now that you mention it:

The SoS office pointed out that people who claim GA& #39;s scanners are violating a law that allows https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen"> and https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✖️" title="Fettes Malzeichen x" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes Malzeichen x"> marks to count as votes are citing an outdated code section (§ 21-2-438) that does not apply to Georgia& #39;s new optical scan voting system. https://twitter.com/dufort_jeanne/status/1278380025411223553">https://twitter.com/dufort_je...
21-2-438 is part of a larger code section that deals with "paper ballots" that some municipalities used and was last updated in 2003, before Georgia switched to direct-recording electronic voting machines.
Georgia& #39;s ballot-marking devices+scanners are governed by a code section for "precincts using optical scanning voting equipment."

Same general area of the law, but an important difference.
Furthermore, here& #39;s how the State Election Board defines a vote on hand-marked ballot in rule 183-1-15-.02.

"Filling in the oval adjacent to the name of the candidate or answer to a question for which the voter desires to vote"

But what if it& #39;s not filled in fully, Stephen?
...that& #39;s where § 21-2-483 (g), in the optical scanning code section, comes in.

Counties have vote review panels that manually review ballots rejected by the scanner to determine voter intent.

But scanners don& #39;t always flag/pick up marks that can cover a small % of the oval.
So in some cases, vote review panels saw marks visible to human eye (like a big X or checkmark) that didn& #39;t get flagged by scanner.

But that& #39;s how it& #39;s supposed to work - scanners are calibrated to look at a certain area on the ballot and act if it meets a certain threshold.
Above a certain % = it& #39;s a vote!
Below a certain % = no vote!
within a certain % = humans, come check!

It relies on calibration to not miss votes (while not having EVERY stray mark flagged) AND voters to actually fully bubble in an oval. https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr/status/1278412881990750209?s=20">https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr...
If hand-marked paper ballots were being used in a precinct, a precinct scanner could be used to alert the voter of a problem/flagged selection.

But these absentee ballots are returned and tabulated using a central scanner where the voter isn& #39;t present.
TL;DR - if you vote absentee in Georgia, be sure to follow the directions to fully bubble in the oval of your selections so the scanner records your vote!

(and always double-check your ballot before casting it, regardless the method you choose to vote!)
And as Tom points out - the vote review board with their human eyes can and do judge whether something is a stray mark or a check/x/intended to be a vote.

It just has to be enough of a mark to get registered and flagged by the scanner.

https://twitter.com/tommcmahandade/status/1278420273457438728?s=21">https://twitter.com/tommcmaha... https://twitter.com/tommcmahandade/status/1278420273457438728">https://twitter.com/tommcmaha...
Revisiting this again after speaking with multiple county elections officials - they told me this is exactly how the scanners are supposed to work and they encourage voters to fully mark their absentee ballots.
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