ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans have been trying to move away from touch-screen voting machines the party’s leaders and activists have criticized for years, but changing the state’s voting system quickly has proved difficult as deadlines, funding and operational realities converge. With the July 1 requirement to remove barcode-style elements from ballots approaching, the path to a full replacement before November has narrowed, according to reporting on the state’s legislative and election-administration process.
The machines at the center of the dispute still appear likely to be used by Georgia voters this November. Under the system described by the Associated Press, ballots include a paper printout paired with a QR code, a type of barcode, that scanners use to tally votes. Republicans have continued to allege that such machines deleted or switched votes in 2020, even as the story notes that there has been no supporting evidence and that Dominion Voting Systems has paid money in defamation settlements.
After President Donald Trump’s allies pressed barcodes as a target, the state’s politics also shifted. The AP story says a deadline was set by Georgia lawmakers two years ago to remove barcodes from ballots by July 1, but lawmakers and administrators failed to agree on how to meet the mandate, and crucially did not provide funding for the change.
Despite those constraints, conservative activists rallied around the possibility of removing the barcode element this year. That effort has been reflected in the control and actions of Georgia’s State Election Board, where the AP story says board members have cited claims used by the FBI in the 2020 ballot seizure from Fulton County. Board member Salleigh Grubbs also posted on social media as the July 1 delay proposal leaked, writing: “HAND. MARKED. PAPER. BALLOTS. I will not be moved. I shall not be moved. Got it?”
At the election-board level, the story describes how board members—including its lone Democratic member—voted 4-0 on Wednesday to urge legislators “to move to hand-marked paper ballots as soon as practicable.” The AP also reports that some opponents of the machines have pointed to vulnerabilities in the Dominion code, including an examination that found weaknesses could be exploited if someone gained physical access, while noting the machines themselves are not connected to the internet.
In parallel, Georgia Republicans faced tradeoffs in what removing barcodes would have required. The AP story says some proposals to meet the barcode-removal deadline would have demanded drastic changes, including hand-counting every in-person ballot before Election Day or changing early-voting rules so voters would be assigned to specific early voting sites rather than being able to vote at any early location in their county. The story says such designated-location voting caused confusion in two counties in the recent Texas primary.
At a Tuesday committee hearing, lawmakers also signaled that the practical direction was toward hand-marked paper ballots that scanners count, with a plan to buy printers that could produce ballots as needed rather than preprinting millions. But the AP reports those discussions also acknowledged the schedule problem: the late start makes a large switch before November unlikely.
Republican Rep. Victor Anderson of Cornelia, who chairs the House Governmental Affairs Committee, said the change away from barcodes this year threatened a “severe upset in our election system.” “It just wasn’t going to happen,” Anderson said, according to the AP account. Instead, the committee advanced a bill that would require the state to pick a new voting system not by July 1, but by 2028, and would also pledge funds to buy new equipment for Georgia’s 159 counties.
However, the proposal still faces remaining political steps before it could take effect. The AP story says the full House and a more conservative Senate must vote on the measure, and the Senate could balk. It also says Lt. Gov. Burt Jones—endorsed by Trump in his 2026 bid for governor—did not respond to a request for comment.
Even among supporters of changing systems, the timeline uncertainty is visible. State Sen. Max Burns of Sylvania, described by the AP story as a leading proponent of switching to hand-marked paper ballots, told The Associated Press after the hearing that he was “disappointed in the timeline,” but added, “at this point, we have the choice of making an informed legislative decision or unfortunately dealing with a legal option which is not realistic.”
The AP story also describes a political dispute over how audits would work if the bill passes. David Worley, a Democrat who formerly served on the State Election Board, criticized the proposal as “hyperpartisan” and warned that it would shift authority over some postelection audits from the secretary of state to the State Election Board without giving that board the ability or staff to conduct an audit.
At the local level, the AP story says officials who run elections welcomed the delay, describing it as a way to prevent disruption. Deidre Holden, election director in Paulding County, said of pushing the timeline back: “This is something that is setting us up for success and not failure.” She added that “The timeline was my biggest concern,” in remarks cited by the AP.