The State Election Board will soon wrestle with the question of whether they will use their clear authority and fulfill their duty to see to it that the vulnerable compromised voting system is reconfigured in November, thereby avoiding the almost certain chaos and endless lawsuits from losing candidates and supporters. The commonsense long-standing emergency hand marked (machine counted) balloting law enacted as a fail-safe against system technology problems should be used to conduct a verifiable November election.
Georgia’s voting system software has been dangerously compromised, with unauthorized distribution over the internet. Even before that 2021 breach was exposed, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued warnings about the touchscreen system’s vulnerabilities based on Dr. Alex Halderman’s security analysis. Other cybersecurity experts, underscored the significant threats posed by these vulnerabilities. Malware can be easily introduced and spread from a county’s central election server to some or all touchscreen units, further compromising Georgia’s entire voting infrastructure.
In 2022, CISA and top cybersecurity experts recommended immediate mitigation, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the State Election Board ignored the dire warnings. As a result, we face the 2024 election with undeniable high risks and potential post-election controversies.
We can expect the Secretary of State to falsely claim and protest that touchscreens are mandated, regardless of their compromised state and significant violations of multiple election laws. He has routinely claimed that only if the touchscreen becomes a “brick” can emergency ballots be used— regardless of whether the touchscreens are hacked, vulnerable to exploitation, mis-programmed, or publicly display the private votes on brightly lit screens, violating constitutional guarantees of ballot secrecy. State officials have absurdly postured that the requirement to use touchscreens trumps all other laws, state and federal. On the eve of the election, with the controversy still growing over real and imagined problems in the 2020 election, the State Election Board must resist making such silly excuses to cling to the compromised system inviting an election meltdown that could make the 2020 election fights look mild.
The Case for Urgent Action
It is imperative that November’s election results are verifiable and achieved through a transparent process with trustworthy ballots. Experts agree that ballots produced by Georgia’s touchscreen ballot-marking devices are simply not trustworthy. Therefore, the Board should adopt a temporary rule requiring emergency balloting using hand-marked ballots counted by scanners, accompanied by robust audits. The Coalition for Good Governance submitted such a proposed temporary rule requesting that it be heard at the Board’s upcoming meeting on Tuesday, after the Board has unlawfully repeatedly delayed considering our similar proposals for 15 months. This simple measure will safeguard the election and restore voter confidence, saving millions of dollars and greatly reducing poll worker labor requirements.
Hand-marked ballots (the method used by 70 percent of Americans) are the gold standard for election security, providing a tangible record for voters to verify before casting. This hand marked trustworthy record is crucial for conducting accurate post-election audits and recounts.
The temporary rule would make hand-marked ballots the standard method of voting, with touchscreens reserved for accessibility purposes. Voters will mark their ballots with black markers, and ballots will be scanned and tabulated in the polling place. This process has been perfected for decades in 70 percent of American voters’ polling places. It’s not difficult!
Supplemental post-election audits are mandated in our proposal for a significant portion of state and federal races at least during the 2024 and 2025 elections until the compromised software can be replaced. This rigorous audit process is essential for detecting discrepancies and confirming election outcomes, something not possible with touchscreen-generated ballots.
The State Election Board has a statutory duty to ensure the voting system operates safely with integrity, and that all election laws are enforced. They must act promptly to address these concerns. Emergency balloting, authorized by statute as the back-up voting method, and meaningful audits will withstand scrutiny.
The adoption of the proposed temporary rule for hand-marked ballots is not just about enhancing election security— it is an urgent necessity to protect Georgia’s democratic process. The vulnerabilities of the current electronic voting systems pose an unacceptable risk to election fairness and invite post-election chaos. By enacting this temporary rule, the State Election Board can ensure ballots are accurately counted.
The responsibility now rests with the State Election Board to use its considerable rule-making authority to adopt common sense measures to protect Georgia voters’ electoral choices.
Marilyn Marks is the executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance.
