Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is asking legislators for $4.7 million to buy devices to allow voters to verify that computer codes printed on their ballots accurately reflect their choices.
The technology would be available in every Georgia voting location so skeptical voters could confirm that QR codes match the printed text on ballots before they’re scanned and counted.
Election integrity advocates have said QR codes prevent human verification of ballots and could be manipulated by hackers, though there’s no evidence that has ever happened in an election.
“Some voters question, ‘Well, how do I know what the QR code reader is reading?’ ” Raffensperger said last week at a joint hearing of the state House and Senate budget committees. “So if you had a QR code reader, to the voters that are concerned, then you’ll be able to actually do that in every precinct.”
Georgia’s voting system relies on a combination of touchscreens and printers, which produce a sheet of paper that includes a QR code — along with a human-readable list of the voter’s choices. Then voters insert their ballots into optical scanning machines that read the bar code, which counts as the official vote.
Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery said election officials should consider removing QR codes from ballots entirely and instead scan them like standardized tests.
“I sat at Sally Meadows (Elementary School) and they ran my Scantron ... and it was reading my bubbled dot, not a QR,” said Tillery, a Republican from Vidalia.
Raffensperger told legislators that eliminating QR codes would require new printers that are able to create longer ballots with ovals next to voters’ choices, similar to absentee ballots. His office previously estimated it would cost $15 million to buy 32,500 new ballot printers that can handle an 18-inch-long ballot.
The QR-code equipment was part of $26 million in new proposed election funding, including:
- $10.4 million to upgrade Dominion Voting Systems software after the 2024 election.
- $6 million to replace power supplies for voting equipment.
- $3 million for a voter education campaign on TV and social media about the security of Georgia’s election system and the responsibility of voters to check their ballots for accuracy.
- $2.7 million for 24 new staff positions in the state’s Elections Division.
Lawmakers will consider Raffensperger’s election proposals as part of the annual state budget process during next year’s legislative session.
