By Jill Nolin | Editor
When state lawmakers delayed the July 1 deadline to remove QR codes from Georgia’s ballots, they also teed up the work of a special committee that will help choose the state’s next election system. A legislator who has aspirations of being Georgia’s next top election official successfully worked in a limitation for the committee’s work: it can only look at systems where voters mark their ballot by hand. Still, it will be up to future lawmakers to decide which system to adopt.
An election worker in Gwinnett County demonstrates how to insert a voter card into ballot-marking devices used by voters across Georgia. Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder
VOTING
By Maya Homan
Georgia’s ballot QR code crisis is resolved for now, but a late change to an elections bill passed during last month’s special session adds a new twist to the question of how future elections across the state will be run.
Under a state law passed in 2024, Georgia could no longer use QR codes to count ballots after July 1, but state lawmakers repeatedly failed to appropriate the funds needed to make the switch ahead of the self-imposed deadline. The question of how to count votes had threatened to destabilize the state’s midterm elections.
The updated bill, which allows the state to continue using QR codes to tally votes until 2028, mandates additional post-election audits on certain statewide contests and establishes a special committee to help select the state’s next voting system, has been signed into law by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
In Georgia, the rate of uninsured young children rose from 5.1% to 6.6%, higher than the national average and higher than our neighbors in Alabama (4.1%). zimmytws via Getty Images
COMMENTARY
By Dr. Keisha Renee Callins
“If children are well, then the village is well.” This adage beautifully expresses a vital public health concept: A community’s health is best measured by how it protects and nurtures the welfare of its most vulnerable members.
As an OB-GYN, I celebrate some of life’s happiest moments with families: a healthy pregnancy, a safe delivery, and a newborn’s first days. But increasingly, I also see families struggling to get the care their children need simply because they don’t have health insurance.
A lone star tick, which is a very aggressive tick that bites humans. A circular rash sometimes follows the bite. (Photo courtesy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
HEALTH
By Amelia Twyan
The prime time for ticks is here in the United States, and after an especially active start to the season, experts are urging the public to stay alert and take preventive measures.
Monthly emergency department visits for tick bites in April spiked to their highest level since 2017 and continued to remain high throughout May and June, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tick bite tracker.
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ICYMI FROM THE RECORDER
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