Georgia’s vote-counting method will soon be banned. Lawmakers will try to find a fix this week

ATLANTA — When Georgia lawmakers return to the Capitol this week for a particular session, they’re anticipated to attempt to clear up an election mess of their own making.

The election system used all through the political battleground state depends on a QR code printed on ballots to tally the votes. Legislators passed a law two years ago barring using that barcode for the official vote rely past July 1 of this yr, however no replacement method of tabulating votes was ever carried out.

One of many directions Republican Gov. Brian Kemp laid out for lawmakers when he called the special session is to “tackle points created” by that regulation. In the meantime, the secretary of state’s workplace and the State Election Board have additional muddied the waters by issuing conflicting steering for county election officers about how votes needs to be solid and counted.

If the problems aren’t resolved quickly, there’s more likely to be confusion and probably litigation over the state’s elections after July 1. A particular election to fill a U.S. Home seat is scheduled for that month.

Georgia’s current election system was first used statewide in the course of the 2020 major. After the overall election that yr, when Republican President Donald Trump narrowly lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump and his supporters claimed without evidence that the machines had deleted or switched votes.

Trump’s backers continued to complain concerning the touchscreen voting machines, with some loyalists espousing wild conspiracy theories. Election integrity advocates additionally criticized the machines, saying they’re vulnerable to hacking and that voters can’t be positive their picks are precisely mirrored as a result of individuals cannot learn QR codes.

Republican lawmakers in 2024 tried to handle these considerations by passing a law banning barcodes for the “official tabulation rely” after July 1, 2026. However within the two years since, no different counting methodology has been adopted. Now, the deadline is quick approaching and a serious midterm election looms.

Trump singled out those machines, that are utilized in at the very least some counties in additional than a dozen states, in his first executive order on elections shortly after he took workplace for his second time period in January 2025. That order has been blocked by a number of courts and isn’t being enforced.

Final month, Kemp introduced a particular legislative session, scheduled to start out Wednesday, to draw new congressional maps for the 2028 elections and to handle the QR code situation.

It is attainable that lawmakers may prolong the deadline within the regulation to permit the QR codes for use for now and provides themselves some respiration room to provide you with a brand new system earlier than elections in 2028. However within the waning hours of the common legislative session earlier this yr, they rejected a proposal that may have accomplished that.

Even when lawmakers agree on an answer, it is perhaps powerful to implement earlier than a particular election to fill the rest of the time period of U.S. Rep. David Scott, who died in April. The particular election is about for July 28, with early voting starting July 6.

The secretary of state’s workplace final week issued steering to election officers within the six counties included in that congressional district. The workplace says it is preliminary and topic to vary based mostly on any developments from the particular session.

The ballots shall be run by way of the scanners, which is able to learn the QR code to generate the election night time vote rely. Then, earlier than county certification, digital photographs created by the scanners for every poll shall be uploaded to a server, the place optical character recognition software program shall be used to tally the votes utilizing the human-readable textual content. The outcomes of that second course of would be the official tabulation rely.

The secretary of state’s steering expressly says counties should proceed to make use of the present election system, together with the touchscreen voting machines, and that there’s nothing within the regulation that authorizes using hand-marked paper ballots for in-person voting.

The State Election Board weighed in two days later with conflicting steering. Board members argued the plan proposed by the secretary of state shouldn’t be approved by regulation.

The board handed a decision instructing counties on what to do if the particular legislative session doesn’t end in an extension of the deadline for utilizing QR codes. The decision directs counties to make use of their emergency backup, which requires hand-marked paper ballots with scanners used to rely voters’ picks.

When requested concerning the conflicting steering in the course of the election board assembly, Elizabeth Younger, a lawyer with the state lawyer normal’s workplace, mentioned that whereas the steering shouldn’t be binding, “clearly it might trigger confusion for elections superintendents if they’re getting differing directions from two companies, each of which have some authority over what they’re doing.”

The election board has been managed by a Trump-aligned majority and is commonly at odds with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who’s a frequent Trump target.

Henry County in Atlanta’s suburbs is likely one of the counties the place voters will go to the polls for subsequent month’s particular election. Axiver Harris, interim elections director, mentioned the county is conscious of the conflicting steering and is awaiting additional clarification from the state.

“Given the uncertainty surrounding the steering at the moment out there, we consider it’s smart to attend for additional path to make sure that any selections made are in line with state necessities and election administration finest practices,” he wrote in an e mail.

Marcye Scott, who’s working within the particular election to serve the rest of her late father’s time period, mentioned she shouldn’t be positive most voters are even conscious of the problem and is focusing her consideration elsewhere.

“My purpose is to get individuals to the polls, get my individuals to the polls and get them to vote for me,” she mentioned.

However Carlos Moore, one other of the six candidates working within the particular election, mentioned he’s frightened about authorized challenges if a brand new methodology of vote-counting is carried out with out sufficient time. He hopes lawmakers prolong the deadline to permit using the QR codes for now.

“I’d ask that legislators do the fitting factor, depart properly sufficient alone for the particular election,” he mentioned. “In any other case, it’s nearly sure there shall be challenges in courtroom.”