Overview
- On June 18, 2026, state senators advanced a bill that would push the July 1, 2026 ban on QR-code vote tabulation to Jan. 1, 2028 and send the proposal to the full Senate for consideration.
- The measure would form a nine-member Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee made up of three appointees from the governor, three from House leadership and three from Senate leadership, and a Democratic amendment to reserve minority-caucus seats failed.
- If the bill becomes law, Georgia’s current system that prints a human‑readable ballot plus a machine‑readable QR code will likely be used in the November 2026 midterms, a result some election officials say could avoid last‑minute polling confusion.
- The committee would have until Jan. 31, 2027 to recommend technical specifications and standards, and the legislature would be responsible for funding, buying and implementing any new system for the 2028 cycle.
- The debate reflects two strains of concern: cybersecurity and transparency advocates who say voters and auditors cannot verify what QR codes encode, and political pressure from President Trump and others that has led vendors like Dominion to contest related conspiracy claims in court.