ATLANTA — Just one day after shelving plans to redraw the state’s congressional and legislative district maps, Georgia lawmakers moved Thursday toward delaying any action on the state’s controversial vote-counting system as well.
The result would leave Georgia’s current ballot-tallying method — one that depends on a QR code printed on paper ballots — in place heading into the November election. Some advocates for voting rights said they actually preferred that outcome, worried that last-minute changes could create confusion at polling locations.
Republican Governor Brian Kemp had placed both redistricting and the election system on the agenda for a special legislative session. On Wednesday, the first day of that session, lawmakers shot down his push for redistricting ahead of the 2028 election. Their concern: acting too hastily following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minority voters.
On Thursday, the focus shifted to the QR code voting system. Legislators moved forward with a bill that would extend a looming deadline rather than replace the system outright.
The QR code system has been a flashpoint in recent years. President Donald Trump claimed — without providing evidence — that Georgia’s voting machines deleted or switched votes during the 2020 election, which he narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the state.
Two years ago, the legislature passed a law banning the use of QR codes for the official vote count after July 1 of this year. However, no alternative vote-counting method was ever put in place. Instead of developing a new system during the special session, lawmakers now appear ready to simply push the deadline back.
The bill advanced by state senators Thursday would move the July 1 cutoff to January 1, 2028. It would also establish a committee charged with developing recommendations for “specifications, standards, and requirements” for a new voting system.
Republican state Sen. Max Burns, who co-authored the bill, explained the reasoning to fellow lawmakers: “We feel that this gets us into a position to clarify and provide certainty to our election officials and to our electorate.”
County election officials across Georgia have been receiving conflicting guidance about how to handle vote counting if the legislature failed to act on the deadline or introduce a replacement system.
Burns said the governor’s office and House leadership had both agreed to the Senate’s approach. The bill cleared two committees Thursday, with a full Senate vote scheduled for Saturday.
Georgia’s voting machines have long been the target of conspiracy theories. Manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems has fought those claims aggressively in court. At the same time, election integrity advocates have raised separate concerns, arguing the machines could be vulnerable to hacking and that voters have no way to verify their choices are accurately recorded since QR codes cannot be read by the human eye.
President Trump singled out these machines — which are also used in at least some counties across more than a dozen other states — in his first executive order on elections after beginning his second term in January 2025. That order has since been blocked by multiple courts and is currently not being enforced.
Under the proposed legislation, the newly created committee would have until January 31, 2027, to submit its recommendations. State lawmakers would then be responsible for securing funding, purchasing, and putting a new system into operation in time for the 2028 election cycle.
The nine-member committee would include three people appointed by the governor, three members from the Senate, and three from the House.
