Georgia lawmakers delay ending QR code vote counting through midterms

Georgia’s QR-code ballot system is set to stay in place through the midterms after lawmakers moved to delay the state’s deadline for ending it. The Senate Ethics Committee advanced the bill in an 8-4 party-line vote on Thursday, pushing the cutoff from July 1, 2026, to January 1, 2028, and giving Georgia another two years to settle a fight that has become a test of election confidence in a battleground state.

The dispute centers on how votes are counted. Georgia’s current ballot-marking devices produce paper ballots with QR codes that scanners use for official tabulation, recounts and audits. Critics, including hand-marked-ballot advocates and cybersecurity experts, say voters cannot truly verify what the code contains, even if the printed text looks right, which leaves the system vulnerable to distrust. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has defended the equipment, saying audit testing found the QR codes accurate and that one state announcement said the codes were 100% correct in the races tested.

The cost of replacing the system has been a major reason for delay. Raffensperger told lawmakers in 2025 that updating the equipment to remove QR-code tabulation would require about $66 million in state funds, up from an earlier estimate of about $32.5 million discussed in 2023. The bill moving through the Georgia General Assembly would create a nine-member legislative committee, with appointments by the governor and legislative leaders, to write the specifications, standards and requirements for whatever system comes next.

The issue has sharpened because Georgia’s deadlines keep colliding with election calendars. A 2024 law required QR codes to stop being used for tallying votes by July 1, 2026, but no replacement system has been put in place. A House blue-ribbon study committee on election procedures recommended in February that Georgia adopt hand-marked paper ballots on Election Day starting with the 2026 general election and that any ballot containing a QR code be hand-counted for official purposes. On June 4, the Georgia State Election Board said counties could switch to hand-marked paper ballots if lawmakers failed to act.

Governor Brian Kemp had put both redistricting and the voting system on the special-session agenda, but lawmakers had already shelved the redistricting push and now appear ready to defer the ballot fight as well. That leaves the QR-code system in place for Georgia’s November 3, 2026, general election, as the state again asks voters to trust a tabulation method many of them still cannot see.