- Jun 21
- 2 min read
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 2026
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Senate Republicans Pass Bill to Extend QR Code Deadline, Exclude Democrats from Committee
Senate Bill 3EX passes without Democratic input on the committee, leaving voting infrastructure open to lunatic “cybersecurity experts”
Atlanta, Ga. — Today, Senate Republicans voted to pass Senate Bill 3EX. While the Senate Democratic Caucus supports extending the deadline, the caucus does not support a piece of legislation that refuses to guarantee Democratic representation on the newly formed election committee. Senate Democrats spent the last session arguing to extend this deadline instead of wasting time on fantasy hand-marked paper ballot legislation. Had the majority not wasted the last year chasing fairy tales, the Senate wouldn’t be spending taxpayer money on a special session to fix an avoidable crisis.
The nine-member committee grants three appointments each to the Governor, the Senate Committee on Assignments, and the House Speaker. The bill contains no guarantee of bipartisan representation. Republicans are locking Democrats out of the committee so they can rewrite Georgia’s voting rules unilaterally.
“Republicans spent months dragging their feet on this issue, and now we’re in a special session because they passed a ban on QR codes without ever planning for an alternative system,” said Minority Whip Kim Jackson. “They created this mess all by themselves. But instead of working with us to fix it, they’ve decided to shut out our caucus and leave millions of Georgians without representation.”
“This is an exact replay of 2019, when our caucus explicitly warned against spending millions of dollars on machines for a system no one has confidence in,” said Minority Leader Jones II. “They refused to listen to us, and they are refusing to listen to us again. Instead of working with their elected Democratic colleagues, the majority party is choosing to take input from unverified ‘cybersecurity experts.’ They would rather give a platform to the election theories of the My Pillow Guy than seat a single Democrat on this committee.”
Background
In 2019, during an Ethics Committee hearing, Senator Sally Harrell introduced an amendment to transition Georgia away from QR code ballots and onto a voter-verifiable paper ballot system. Senate Republicans rejected the amendment, choosing instead to enter into a massive, multi-year contract that has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Senate Bill 3EX allows the committee to consult “cybersecurity experts” but includes no requirements for professional certifications or qualifications. During Thursday’s Ethics Committee hearing, Senate Republicans refused to include language that would have added basic standards for these “cybersecurity experts.”
Minority Leader Jones II and Senator Kim Jackson are available for comment.
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