Georgia's election war just went federal.
The State Election Board's executive director, James Mills, sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and other top federal officials on Wednesday asking the Justice Department to examine Georgia's statewide voting machines and prohibit QR-code vote counting.
Mills wants a binding six-month deadline forcing Georgia to eliminate QR codes on ballots — the system scanners use to tally votes across the state.
The letters followed a 3-2 board vote Monday on a resolution introduced by GOP appointee Carolyn Roddy, urging the DOJ and Homeland Security to intervene in Georgia's elections and pressing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office to update voting software.
Not everyone on the board is on board. Chairman John Fervier, appointed by Governor Brian Kemp, opposed the move. "I have a fundamental issue with the federal government becoming involved in Georgia elections," Fervier said. "I'm just a limited government kind of guy, whether it's state or federal."
The board's lone Democrat, Sara Tindall Ghazal, called it "a clearly bad-faith attempt to set up a contest to election results that Republicans do not like."
The resolution also directed Raffensperger's office to preserve copies of server hard drives and other election data for federal agencies to review.
The timing is explosive. Early in-person voting for the midterms begins October 13 — less than two weeks after Mills sent his letters. Election officials and voting experts say overhauling the system this close to the election can't be done.
It's the latest salvo in the long-running feud between the Republican-controlled board, often aligned with the Trump administration, and Raffensperger's office, which actually administers Georgia's elections.