Election officials left in limbo as state leaders contemplate next steps for ballot QR codes

This originally published by the Georgia Recorder.

It’s rare to see any sort of consensus when it comes to elections and voting in Georgia politics. 

But on the subject of how elections across the state will be run this upcoming November, elected officials, advocates and elections workers alike will agree on one thing: Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer.

In April, lawmakers adjourned for the year without addressing a longstanding issue over how elections should be counted. Under a 2024 law, QR codes can no longer be used to count ballots after July 1, but state legislators never set aside funding for the change. A proposal to extend the deadline for removing QR codes died on the final day of the legislative session, leaving the next steps uncertain.

Gov. Brian Kemp could call lawmakers back to Atlanta for a special session to address the issue, but doing so could potentially interfere with sitting lawmakers’ ability to fundraise for the May primary election or November general election. State law prohibits legislators from raising campaign money during a legislative session.

A number of voting rights groups, including the ACLU of Georgia, the NAACP Georgia State Conference and the Southern Poverty Law Center, signed onto a letter earlier this month urging Kemp to convene a special session. The conservative-aligned advocacy group Georgia First has also issued calls for a special session to be held to address the problem.

In a statement issued shortly after the session concluded, Kemp’s press secretary, Carter Chapman, said the governor’s office “will analyze all the bills that passed the General Assembly, as well as the consequences of those that did not pass.”

But spokespeople for the governor’s office and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have so far declined to comment further on potential next steps.

For election workers like Joseph Kirk, the Bartow County elections director and the president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, the lack of a clear solution comes as a disappointment. He and other election officials had worked closely with members of the legislature on the bill that would have pushed the deadline for removing QR codes back.

Without those changes being finalized, however, he says that election workers are left to navigate conflicting state laws and unfunded mandates that they have no power to address.

“That kind of contradiction we can’t resolve on the county level,” he said. “The only folks who can resolve that are either the Legislature; the secretary of state, who has the authority to set the statewide system; or a judge as a result of the lawsuit.”

In the meantime, he added, election workers are busy preparing for the May primaries, and likely for runoff elections in June as well. If election workers are asked to implement a new system later this year, Kirk said, he has heard from many people across the state who plan to resign.

“Folks are nervous about making the switch, especially if we do it in a very hasty way,” he said. “We need time to do this right, and we deserve that time.”

Even the State Election Board, a body tasked with writing rules to ensure that elections run smoothly and hearing complaints about alleged violations, is looking to the Legislature to step in and provide a solution.

Janice Johnston, a GOP appointee to the board, said the issue of ballot QR codes might get resolved during a special session, but urged county election workers to start preparing for the possibility of switching to hand-marked paper ballots in the fall.

“We’re facing somewhat of a crisis here as of July 1,” Johnston said at a board meeting held Wednesday in Dawsonville. “I’ve asked quite a number of legislators in the last week since the session ended what is going to happen, and 100% of the time, I’ve had a response of ‘I don’t know.’”

Janelle King, who was appointed to the board by the GOP-controlled Georgia House of Representatives, said she is holding out hope that the issue will be resolved during a special session. But in case lawmakers are unable to come to a compromise for a second time, she urged the board to start drafting guidance for local election officials “so that in case they are in this terrible situation, they’ll have something that they can fall back on.”

Advocacy groups, including the Coalition for Good Governance, have also offered proposed solutions for the State Election Board to consider. Marilyn Marks, the group’s executive director, has urged the board to consider a new rule to define what constitutes an official vote after the QR code ban takes effect, rather than waiting for the Legislature to change the state law.

“We know we have very contentious elections in 2026, and we need to get in compliance right now rather than living with the challenges that are going to come,” she told members of the board during Wednesday’s meeting.

She urged the board to activate the state’s emergency backup system statewide, which would likely require officials to print out paper ballots in advance and have poll workers manually distribute them to voters, who would make selections by hand.

But election workers, including DeKalb County poll manager Janet Grant, said there was no guarantee that switching over to the backup procedure would deliver a smooth experience for voters. The current backup system is typically used in isolated instances, and as a result, is not a large part of poll worker training, Grant said.

“Implementing [the emergency backup system] across a large county like DeKalb is a very different undertaking,” she added.

The board’s sole Democratic appointee, Sara Tindall Ghazal, also raised concerns about how the practice would work in larger counties, where poll managers may have to choose between hundreds of different ballot styles to find the right one for a particular voter. If too many mistakes are made, she said, the validity of the entire election could be called into question.

“The races that would be most impacted by getting the wrong ballot combo are our district races, so our House seats, our Senate seats and the county level seats,” she said. “Because if too many voters get the wrong ballot, then the entire election can be thrown out.”

Under a proposal put forward by the secretary of state’s office, election workers could use scanners to count ballots based on the human-readable text, though that would require buying new equipment. Earlier this year, lawmakers appropriated $1.8 million for new scanners that include the technology, and another $5 million for a full hand recount during November’s general election in the amended 2026 budget. 

However, some have challenged the legality of using the technology, known as optical scanning, arguing that it has not been certified by the Election Assistance Commission, and therefore might not fulfill federal requirements around voting equipment.

Zachary Peskowitz, a political science professor at Emory University, said that if state leaders choose to go that route, the matter would likely be settled through a lawsuit.

“Any kind of change, I think, will attract litigation,” he said, adding that the final decision would ultimately be up to federal courts.

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. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.