What's Behind CBS' QR Code On Vice Presidential Debate?

During the CBS News Vice Presidential debate, viewers were astounded and witnessed a special guest: a QR code.
On October 1, Governor Tim Walz and Senator JD Vance went head-to-head during the first and only Vice Presidential Debate for the 2024 US elections. The debate was hosted as some states in the country began mailing ballots to voters weeks before Election Day.
The vice presidential debate was moderated by CBS News’ own Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell. While both moderators were only allowed to clarify any fuzzy points at their own discretion, both candidates were given opportunities to fact-check each other during the broadcast—a true test of how abreast they were.
Claudia Milne, senior vice president for standards and practices at CBS News, stated, “The goal of the debate is to facilitate a good debate between the candidates.”
Despite the lack of fact-checking during the debate itself, the network provided viewers with a QR code to learn the facts. When viewers scan the code, they are directed to a blog on the network's website. There, a team of around twenty CBS journalists posted fact-checks in real time.
This code will appear on screen during some portions of the debate and is only available while watching it on CBS. Viewers of the debate who are watching it on other networks cannot scan the QR code.
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Fact-checking a “hot topic” during this year’s elections

While this was the first vice presidential debate, the issue of fact-checking did not start here.
During the year’s first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump on CNN, many liberal viewers criticized the network’s refusal to fact-check the latter’s claims.
In the second presidential debate, this time between sitting Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on ABC News, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis provided real-time fact-checking. This move sparked fury from conservative voters, with many considering the entire debate an unfair attack on the former president.
Even a recent vice presidential face-off was not free from criticism when Margaret Brennan corrected Vance’s claim that illegal Haitian immigrants were behind the controversy in Springfield, Ohio.
When the moderator clarified to viewers that the city had a large number of Haitian migrants with legal and temporary protected status, Vance commented, “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check.”
This clash upset many Republican supporters, with Fox News’s Brit Hume stating that the debate felt like a “3-to-1” contest against the senator.
Hot news: QR codes are finding their place in politics

CBS’s code is one of the most creative uses of QR codes to date. However, their fact-checking QR code isn’t the only time a QR code was used in American politics.
In the last week of September 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 1063 which allowed student IDs to have special QR codes on them.
These barcodes would link to local mental health resources and would be available to both public and private school students in grades 7 through 12.
How did he announce the signing of this groundbreaking bill? With a barcode that can only come from a QR code generator with logo integration, of course.
In a letter addressed to the Members of the California State Senate, Newsom printed a QR code with the bear and star of the California flag in the middle. The letter had no other contents except his name and signature.
When scanned, the QR code led to a note where the Californian governor congratulated Ishmeet Singh, the high school student behind the bill.
According to a press release from the office of Republican State Senator Shannon Grove, the student said that the QR codes will give students facing mental health crises easier access to the resources they will need.
Additionally, Grove said that Newsom's use of a QR code was the "first time in legislative history."
But QR codes from Senate Bill 1063 aren’t the only QR codes taking the stage in California. The state has also introduced QR codes to direct citizens to its voter registration website as part of its Democracy at Work program.
With these codes, partner companies, agencies, and organizations gain access to the Secretary of State’s nonpartisan materials to encourage employees and customers to register and vote.
Innovating information-sharing through QR code technology
These recent uses of QR codes in America’s political landscape are just the tip of the iceberg of what QR technology is really capable of.
Even then, they were used in unique but impactful ways. This only goes to show the everyday use that QR codes can serve—as portals to information.
This technology is only going to get more prevalent in the coming years, thanks to the many benefits it brings. In fact, companies and organizations are gearing up to welcome Sunrise 2027—an initiative to replace traditional barcodes in point-of-sale systems with QR codes.
With this ongoing and steady integration of QR codes, even in the political scene, people can expect to see more of these black-and-white squares in the years to come.