Overview
- The General Assembly, which adjourned early Friday without a deal, left in place a 2024 law that outlaws counting votes from QR codes starting July 1.
- Hours earlier, the House passed SB 214 in a 132–39 vote to phase in a uniform paper-based system by 2028 with hand-marked ballots and ballot-on-demand printing.
- The Senate advanced a rival plan to require hand-marked paper ballots for November but did not take up the House bill, leaving the two chambers at odds.
- Georgia now uses touchscreen machines that print a ballot summary next to a QR code read by scanners, a setup critics oppose because voters cannot confirm the code matches their choices.
- No funding or new equipment has been approved, and officials warn the likely next steps are court orders or a special session as counties face printing millions of paper ballots, retraining poll workers, and longer lines.