Georgia lawmakers are set to convene this week for a special legislative session aimed at resolving complications stemming from the state’s vote-counting system, which relies on QR codes printed on ballots. The issue arises from a law passed two years ago that prohibits the use of these QR codes for official tabulation after July 1, 2026, but has yet to provide an alternative method for counting votes.

Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, called the special session to address what he described as “issues created” by the earlier legislation. The timing is critical, as a special election to fill the late U.S. Representative David Scott’s seat is scheduled for July 28, with early voting starting July 6. If the vote-counting method is not clarified, election officials and voters could face confusion or legal challenges in the run-up to this election and beyond.

The use of QR codes for tallying votes was first implemented statewide in Georgia during the 2020 primary election. After that year’s general election, where Joe Biden narrowly defeated Donald Trump in Georgia, the voting system became a target of repeated allegations from Trump and his supporters who claimed—without evidence—that the machines compromised vote accuracy by deleting or switching votes. Beyond political controversies, election integrity advocates have raised concerns that reliance on QR codes prevents voters from verifying their selections, since the codes are not human-readable.

In 2024, Republican legislators sought to address these worries by banning barcodes from official vote tabulation after the July 1, 2026 deadline. However, since the law was enacted, neither the secretary of state’s office nor the General Assembly has developed or approved a compliant replacement system. This legislative inaction has intensified urgency as the deadline looms ahead of major elections.

Recently, the secretary of state’s office issued guidance for counties within the special election district, outlining a two-step vote-counting process. Ballots would initially be scanned using the current machines to read the QR codes for preliminary results. Before certification, electronic images of the ballots would then be processed with optical character recognition (OCR) software to tally votes based on human-readable text, with these final OCR results constituting the official count. The guidance emphasized that counties must continue using the touchscreen voting machines currently in place and stated that in-person voting with hand-marked paper ballots is not authorized by law.

Two days after this directive, the Georgia State Election Board issued a conflicting advisory. Controlled by a Trump-aligned majority often at odds with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the board asserted that the secretary of state’s proposal is not legally authorized. It passed a resolution instructing counties to use their emergency backup plan—hand-marked paper ballots scanned for counting—if the legislature fails to extend the deadline for QR code use during the special session.

The contradictory instructions have caused confusion among election officials. Elizabeth Young, a lawyer with the state attorney general’s office, acknowledged that differing guidance from two authoritative bodies could complicate preparations for election superintendents.

Local election officials are proceeding cautiously. Henry County’s interim elections director, Axiver Harris, stated the county is awaiting further clarification before making decisions to ensure compliance with state law and best practices.

Among candidates in the special election, opinions diverge on the issue. Marcye Scott, running to complete her late father’s term, said she is focusing on voter turnout rather than the vote-counting controversy. Conversely, candidate Carlos Moore expressed concern about potential legal disputes arising from a hastily implemented new system and urged lawmakers to extend the July 1 deadline to continue using QR codes for the upcoming election.

With the deadline approaching and no clear resolution, Georgia’s vote tabulation process remains uncertain as lawmakers face mounting pressure to act swiftly.