A Modest Proposal for Georgia Elections: Total Mail-In Chaos

There was a time…quaint, almost mythical…when the Georgia General Assembly passed laws and then, in a fit of radical responsibility, ensured those laws could actually be implemented.

That time has apparently passed.

Instead, our elected officials have accomplished something far more impressive: they have outlawed the current method of counting ballots (QR codes), declined to agree on a replacement, and then quietly punted the entire mess to the courts, those famously swift and nimble institutions of election administration.

The result is not merely uncertainty. It is a masterclass in legislative abdication.

Outlaw First, Ask Questions Never

As of July 1, Georgia law bans the QR codes currently used to tabulate votes, codes that voters cannot read and therefore, cannot verify.

A reasonable concern.

What followed was less reasonable.

The legislature adjourned without funding, approving, or even agreeing upon a replacement system.

Election officials are now left in “complete uncertainty,” with no clear guidance on how to run upcoming elections.

In simpler terms: the system is illegal, indispensable, and irreplaceable…all at once.

A Special Session…Because, What Could Go Wrong?

Of course, there is always the whispered solution: a special session of the Georgia General Assembly to fix what it declined to fix the first time.

And nothing inspires confidence quite like reopening a politically radioactive issue in an election cycle.

One can only imagine the efficiency. Lawmakers, freed from the burdens of consensus, will gather not to solve the problem, but to perform it, staking out positions, issuing statements, and crafting soundbites calibrated less for implementation than for campaign mailers.

The result would not be clarity, but escalation.

Every proposal becomes a purity test. Every compromise becomes a liability. Every vote becomes an ad.

And all the while, election officials, those inconveniently tasked with actually running elections, will be left waiting to see which version of political theater becomes law, and whether it arrives in time to matter.

If the goal is to restore confidence in Georgia’s election system, a late-breaking special session filled with political posturing is certainly… a choice.

Not a solution.

But a choice.

When in Doubt, Sue It Out

But fear not. The General Assembly may have a plan…Not a legislative plan, mind you.

A judicial one. Because lawyers…YEA!

Rather than resolve the issue through the ordinary, pedestrian act of passing a workable law, lawmakers have effectively outsourced the decision to the courts, inviting litigation to determine whether QR codes can continue, whether deadlines can be delayed, or whether the entire system must be rebuilt on the fly.

Because if there is one thing courts are known for, it is rapidly designing and implementing statewide election infrastructure under time pressure.

This is not governance. It is a game of hot potato, except the potato is on fire and labeled “2026 Election.”

A Modest Proposal (Now With 100% More Absentee Ballots)

In light of this elegant deferral of responsibility, I offer a modest proposal:

If the legislature and courts cannot decide how Georgia should vote, then Georgia should simply stop pretending and move to 100% mailed absentee ballots.

All of them.

Every race. Every voter. Every envelope. Hand-marked. Paper.

No QR codes. No machines. No ambiguity.

Just ballots…millions and millions of pieces of paper…flowing through a system already stretched to its personnel and administrative limits.

The Only System Left Standing

This solution works because lost in all of this is a rather inconvenient fact: mailed absentee ballots are already fully legal in Georgia.

• They require no QR codes.
• They require no last-minute legislative rescue.
• They require no judicial improvisation.

They simply… exist.

Which raises an uncomfortable possibility. If the current QR-based system is outlawed, and no replacement is authorized in time, the only voting method left clearly standing under Georgia law may be the one system the loudest voices have spent years warning us about.

Not because it was chosen.

But because everything else was legislated into oblivion.

In other words, after years of dire warnings about absentee voting, the state may stumble…accidentally, almost poetically…into a system where absentee ballots are not just permitted, but functionally unavoidable.

A triumph of planning, if not intention.

The Dream of the Election Integrity Industrial Complex™

This proposal also has a distinct advantage: it would finally satisfy the long-held predictions of the Election Integrity Industrial Complex™.

For years, we have been warned about absentee ballots:

• That they invite fraud
• That they enable “ballot-harvesting”
• That they create unverifiable chains of custody
• That they produce chaos

We have heard references to “2000 Mules” with the kind of reverence usually reserved for founding documents.

And yet, tragically, reality has stubbornly refused to cooperate.

Until now.

From Theory to Full-Scale Production

Thanks to the legislature’s inability (or unwillingness) to produce a solution, Georgia is already staring down a rushed transition to alternative voting methods, including hand-marked ballots.

Officials warn of confusion, delays, and operational strain.

But why settle for partial dysfunction when we can achieve total clarity?

A universal absentee system would:

• Overwhelm county election offices overnight
• Require staffing levels that do not exist
• Delay results indefinitely
• Invite exactly the disputes we have been warned about

In short, it would transform hypothetical fears into measurable outcomes.

The Courts Will Surely Fix It

Of course, one might object that courts are ill-suited to resolve such logistical questions.

To which the General Assembly appears to respond: and yet, here we are.

By punting this issue to litigation, lawmakers have ensured that:

• Unelected Federal Judges…not elected legislators…may decide how ballots are counted
• Deadlines may be rewritten in court orders rather than statutes
• Election procedures could vary depending on judicial interpretation

If this sounds like a recipe for consistency and public confidence, that is because you are reading it upside down.

A System Only Kafka Could Love

Here is the unavoidable truth…

So yes…let us proceed with the modest proposal:

• Removing QR codes does not restore trust in elections.
• Failing to replace them – and then asking courts to improvise a solution – destroys it.
• The legislature had the opportunity to fix a known problem.
• Instead, it created a larger one and handed it to the judiciary with a polite note that reads, essentially, “you figure it out.”

Mail every ballot. Count them slowly. Litigate them thoroughly.

And finally, deliver to the Election Integrity Industrial Complex™ the one thing it has always promised but never quite achieved: A system so overwhelmed, so contested, and so chaotic that it proves its warnings…by making them come true.