A bill aimed at addressing a looming deadline to remove QR codes from Georgia’s ballots passed the Senate along party lines after a short but contentious debate Saturday.
The measure, which is sponsored by Sylvania Republican Sen. Max Burns, extends the state’s deadline to stop counting ballots by QR codes to 2028, establishes a special committee to help select the state’s next voting system, mandates additional post-election audits on certain statewide contests and requires hand recounts on the two top-ticket races in every election.
“This is a good bill that prepares Georgia for future elections, that secures the elections it will have in 2026 in an orderly fashion and that allows us to do things appropriately,” Burns said as he presented the bill on the Senate floor.
Elections cannot be counted using QR codes after July 1 under current state law, presenting a conundrum for local election officials who use ballot-marking devices that rely on the technology to tally results.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told lawmakers in 2025 that updating all the necessary equipment to count elections without QR codes would require roughly $66 million, but lawmakers repeatedly failed to appropriate the funds needed to make the switch ahead of the midterms.
And though Burns’ bill made it through a committee hearing without any changes, it was amended on the Senate floor Saturday to require hand recounts of the top two races for every election before certification can take place and to change the official tally if the original count was found to be “incorrect.”
Burns said a count would be considered “correct” if it falls within a margin of error outlined in state law.
The amendment passed in a 33-19 vote over the objection of Senate Democrats, who argued that hand counts will slow down the certification process in larger counties and could perpetuate election denialism if the results do not exactly align with the machine tallies.
“It sets us up for chaos and I actually believe that is the intention here,” Senate Minority Whip Kim Jackson, a Stone Mountain Democrat, told reporters. “Republicans are baking into the process an opportunity to create doubt in November, so that they can contest what we know will be a blue wave.”
Democrats also continued to protest their lack of inclusion on the special committee tasked with advising lawmakers on what to consider in the state’s next election equipment.
“To have us completely shut out from this process [at] such an important moment in time is despicable and it’s fundamentally anti-democratic,” Jackson said.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced the special session in May, calling lawmakers back to the Capitol to address the QR code issue, along with other topics like property tax cuts and ratifying this year’s gas tax suspension. He also urged them to consider redrawing congressional and state legislative districts for 2028 in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that diluted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, but Republican lawmakers in both chambers ultimately backtracked on those plans.
Democrats also voiced hope that the Senate’s changes could be removed by the House as lawmakers consider the bill further.
“I have full confidence that Speaker Burns will try to put at least some of this nonsense behind us, and I hope that he sends back a clean bill that the Senate Republicans can finally accept,” said Sandy Springs Democrat Sen. Josh McLaurin, who is also the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.
Burns’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bill could be heard in a House committee as soon as Monday.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
