Georgia Bans QR Codes on Ballots Amid Election Conspiracy Claims

In 2024 the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill prohibiting the use of QR codes on election ballots. The measure was approved with six months remaining before the 2024 midterm elections, and the legislature has not yet adopted an alternative method for ballot verification. The ban directly targets the QR-code component of the state’s current voting system.

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Georgia introduced a new voting system in 2019, allocating $107 million to purchase Dominion voting machines. Voters make selections on a touchscreen; the machine then prints a paper ballot that displays a human-readable summary and a QR code encoding the same information. Election workers scan the QR code with tabulators to count votes after voters confirm the printed summary matches their intent.

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Garland Favorito, a long-time promoter of election-fraud narratives, has claimed that QR codes enable ballot manipulation and has urged the removal of voting machines altogether. Sara Tindall Ghazal, a member of Georgia’s State Election Board, has publicly described the QR-code controversy as a “red herring” used to amplify fears of fraud.

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• $107 million spent on Dominion voting machines (2019).

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• QR code on each ballot encodes the same selections shown in the printed summary.

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• The 2024 ban follows a six-month window before the midterms, with no replacement system approved.

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The State Election Board, represented by Ghazal, emphasized that the QR-code issue is being leveraged to suggest widespread election fraud, despite the board’s view that the technology does not compromise ballot integrity. Legislative sponsors of the ban framed the QR code as a symbol of vulnerability, while Favorito and allied groups have used the legislative debate to press for the elimination of electronic voting machines.

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Critics of QR codes—including election-denial activists and some computer-science professionals—argue that because the digital code cannot be read by humans, voters cannot verify that the encoded data matches the printed ballot. This criticism underpins the push to ban QR codes and fuels broader calls to replace electronic voting equipment.

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There is a clear disagreement between election officials, who maintain that QR codes are a functional verification tool, and opponents who claim the codes are inherently insecure. The sources do not provide empirical evidence of QR-code tampering, leaving a gap in publicly documented proof of either risk or safety.

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The ban on QR codes may affect Georgia’s ability to process ballots efficiently in the upcoming midterms and could accelerate efforts by conspiracy-theory advocates to eliminate electronic voting machines entirely. The controversy illustrates how technical components of election infrastructure can become focal points in broader disputes over election legitimacy.

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> “It's a complete red herring, but it's being used to symbolize a fear of election fraud,” — Sara Tindall Ghazal, Georgia State Election Board

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> “The folks who are desperate to remove the QR codes think that our elections are vulnerable, that they're being hacked or being rigged, that fraud is rampant and widespread.” — Sara Tindall Ghazal, Georgia State Election Board

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Georgia’s election officials must develop an alternative ballot-verification method before the November 2024 midterms. The legislature may consider additional measures addressing voting-machine security, while proponents of the ban continue to advocate for the removal of electronic voting equipment.

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