Legislation to keep Georgia's embattled vote-counting method in place for this year's midterm elections faced strong opposition from state Democrats on Monday after Republicans in the Georgia Senate approved an amendment that would require a hand recount of ballots. The amended bill passed the Senate on a party-line vote, but the House did not immediately schedule it for a vote.
Georgia's governor, Republican Brian Kemp, called lawmakers into a special session to address a July 1 deadline set to ban the QR codes used for the official vote count. Legislators passed a law two years ago that set that deadline but then failed to find a replacement for tabulating votes. Some voting rights activists have warned that any changes so close to midterm elections could create confusion at polling sites. Georgia is a political swing state where voters will decide high-profile races for U.S. Senate and governor in the fall.
State lawmakers last week appeared to have reached a deal on a bill to push the July 1 deadline back to 2028. But Republicans in the Senate approved an amendment over the weekend that would require a full hand recount of the two races at the top of ballot, which in November would be the governor's contest and a U.S. Senate election.
What the Right Is Saying
Republican state Sen. Max Burns defended the Senate bill, saying hand counts and machine counts can "coexist and confirm each other's ultimate results." He added: "This amendment to a good bill is to strengthen it so that the voters have confidence in election security."
The push for hand recounts has gained traction with Republican lawmakers in some states amid President Donald Trump's repeated false claims about a stolen 2020 election. Trump claimed without evidence that voting machines in Georgia deleted or switched votes in 2020, when he narrowly lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden.
What the Left Is Saying
Georgia Democrats say a hand recount in November would create chaos that could sow doubt about the results. Research has shown that hand-counting is more prone to error, costlier and likely to delay results.
State Rep. Saira Draper, a Democrat, said Monday: "What we are experiencing is a Republican Senate who's acting extraordinarily irresponsibly with Georgia's elections and people's votes."
The current election system uses a QR code printed on ballots to tally the votes. Critics have raised concerns that voters cannot be sure their selections are accurately reflected because people cannot read QR codes. Dominion Voting Systems, the manufacturer of Georgia's voting machines, has vigorously fought conspiracy theories about the equipment in court.
What the Numbers Show
Georgia's current system relies on QR codes printed on ballots for official vote tallies. The July 1 deadline was established two years ago by a law requiring legislators to find an alternative counting method. The Senate bill would extend that deadline to Jan. 1, 2028, and create a committee to recommend requirements for a new voting system with a reporting deadline of Jan. 31, 2027.
The amended bill passed the Georgia Senate on a party-line vote. Election integrity advocates have argued that current machines are vulnerable to hacking because voters cannot independently verify QR code accuracy.
The Bottom Line
The legislation now awaits action in the House, where leaders have not indicated when they will schedule a vote. If enacted, the law would affect how votes are counted in high-profile races in a battleground state during the 2026 midterm elections. Voting rights advocates have cautioned that changes made close to an election could create confusion at polling sites and potentially delay results.
The special session was also supposed to address redrawing Georgia's congressional and legislative districts for the 2028 election, but lawmakers postponed those plans.