Georgia was going to dump voting machines that Trump hates until things got complicated
ATLANTA (AP) — The stars appeared to be aligned for Republicans to get rid of their biggest target: Georgia’s touch-screen voting machines.
But even as 2020 election deniers rose to influential places in state government and the second Donald Trump administration, the complex reality of changing voting systems stood in our way.
Instead, it’s increasingly likely that Georgia voters will still cast their ballots on computers this November. Domination Voting SystemsIt was acquired by a company called Liberty Vote. The machines print a paper ballot containing a QR code, a type of barcode that scanners use to count votes.
The president and his allies continue to claim that machines deleted or changed votes in 2020, despite no supporting evidence and the huge sum of money paid to Dominion in defamation agreements. Trump in March 2025 issued an administrative order This was a law that purportedly banned the use of mostly barcodes in vote counting and required voters to be able to read their recorded choices. A federal judge blocked that provision in a lawsuit filed by Washington state.
Barcode enemies demanded their removal
Meanwhile, Georgia Republicans were painting themselves into a corner. legislators passed a law Two years ago, a deadline was given until July 1 this year to remove barcodes from ballot papers. Some people fundamentally distrust ballots that are counted using a code that humans cannot read. But lawmakers and executives were unable to agree on any action that would meet the requirements of this law, and more importantly, no funding was provided.
The promised death of QR codes was hugely popular among the cadre of conservative activists who have been agitating for voting changes since Trump lost Georgia in 2020. Now these allies control Georgia State Board of Elections and provided Allegations made by the FBI in it Seizure of 2020 ballot papers He’s from Fulton County, a deeply Democratic county that’s been at the center of endless fraud allegations.
“HAND MARKED. PAPER. BALLOTS. I won’t move. I won’t move. Understood?” State Board of Elections member Salleigh Grubbs wrote on social media Sunday after news of the proposed postponement of the July 1 deadline leaked.
Opponents of the machines note that the computer code was posted online, including after Trump supporters took it from the election office. Coffee County, Georgia. Even though the machines were not connected to the internet, the examination identified software vulnerabilities that could be exploited if someone gained physical access. Dominion released patches to fix the software problem, but Republican lawmakers did not allocate any money for GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to update the software.
Changes could be devastating
Some proposals to meet the deadline to remove QR codes required radical changes to voting or vote counting in Georgia. Before Election Day, every ballot cast in person would have to be counted by hand. This is the most popular way to vote in Georgia. Another proposal called for voters to be assigned to a single early voting location, rather than allowing them to vote at any early voting location in their county. This shift from nationwide voting to designated locations has caused confusion in two districts in the recent Texas primaries.
Beneath these false starts, there is a growing consensus that hand-marked paper ballots counted by scanners are the way forward. Lawmakers said at a committee hearing Tuesday that they hope to purchase printers that produce as many ballots as needed rather than paying to pre-print millions of ballots. But this comes with a recognition that it is too late to make any major changes in November.
Rep. Victor Anderson, a Cornelia Republican who chairs the House Governmental Affairs Committee, said this year’s move away from bar codes threatens “a serious breakdown in our election system.”
“This wasn’t going to happen,” Anderson said.
Instead, his committee introduced a bill that would require the state to choose a new voting system by 2028, not by July 1. Lawmakers also promised to allocate money to purchase new equipment for Georgia’s 159 counties.
Some still need convincing
It’s not a done deal yet. The full House of Representatives and the more conservative Senate still need to vote on the measure, and the Senate in particular may oppose it. Lieutenant Governor Burt JonesTrump, who is backed by Trump in his bid for governor in 2026, did not respond to a request for comment.
But the Republican state senator, a leading proponent of a switch to hand-marked paper ballots, also acknowledges that November is no longer possible.
“I’m disappointed in the timeline, but we have a choice at this point to make an informed legislative decision or deal with an unfortunately unrealistic legislative option,” Sylvania State Sen. Max Burns told The Associated Press after the hearing.
One section of the bill that appealed to conservative activists but disliked by Democrats would authorize the secretary of state to authorize the State Board of Elections to conduct some post-election audits. Democrat David Worley, who previously served on the board, called the group “hyper-partisan” and warned it did not have the talent or staff to provide oversight.
But local officials are effusive in their praise, saying the delay will prevent potential chaos.
“This is something that sets us up for success, not failure,” Deidre Holden, an elections director in the Atlanta suburb of Paulding County, said of the delay. “The timeline was my biggest concern.”
