Overview
- State law passed in 2024 bars QR‑code tabulation after July 1, 2026 but provided no funded, certified replacement for Georgia’s 159 counties.
- The secretary of state proposed using scanners to create electronic ballot images and then applying optical character recognition to the human‑readable text for the official count.
- Two days after that guidance, the State Election Board passed a resolution directing counties to activate emergency backups of hand‑marked paper ballots with scanners and said the secretary’s plan is not authorized by law.
- Governor Brian Kemp has called a special session that begins Wednesday for lawmakers to resolve the deadline and approve a workable method before early voting for the July 28 special election starts.
- County election officials warn a sudden statewide shift to hand‑marking or manual counts is logistically impractical, could delay results, and is likely to trigger litigation, while the dispute traces to post‑2020 pressure over Dominion ballot‑marking devices that print both text and a QR code.