Last Friday U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg issued a scathing ruling on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s motion to dismiss the long-running Curling v. Raffensperger lawsuit. The plaintiffs asked the federal judge to rule that Dominion Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) could no longer be used in Georgia because they are unsecure and vulnerable to hacking. Taking that into consideration, the judge ruled against Raffensperger and ordered a trial to begin on January 9.
It’s significant that Totenberg wrote that no election security expert has endorsed Georgia’s touchscreen system, which expert witness Dr. Alex Halderman found to be at extreme risk for undetectable attack in a 2021 report. His findings were confirmed by none other than the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, yet the Secretary of State’s office declares the system is secure and cites cost considerations for not initiating changes until after the 2024 elections.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other state lawmakers have also expressed deep concern over the need for election security upgrades, and a consistent Raffensperger critic has been The Coalition for Good Governance.
“The Court noted the misleading and conflicting claims by Secretary Raffensperger about the Coffee (voting system) breaches and his delayed and ineffective response,” says Coalition Executive Director Marilyn Marks. “The order notes how the breaches have grave implications for the security of future elections. Secretary Raffensperger and the State Election Board have continued to bury their heads in the sand, not wanting to second guess Secretary Raffensperger’s 2019 purchase of the highly flawed system that experts have concluded is less secure than the old Diebold paperless system it replaced.”
“The gravely serious issues are being exacerbated with the continuing spread of the stolen software to unauthorized actors with unknown intent,” Marks continues. “No amount of software patches or ‘audits’ can mitigate the dangers of the flawed touchscreen system design. Only hand marked ballots counted by scanners can ensure verifiable election outcomes. The currently debated software update 5.17 is a necessary action, but falls far short of delivering a system that can pass constitutional muster to protect the voters’ rights to cast accountable votes.”
Marks notes a recent BMD touchscreen voting problem in Northampton, Pennsylvania, is the latest example of why such BMDs are unsafe by design. Flawed programming caused two judge retention questions to print the paper ballot with the wrong Yes or No vote, although the barcode to be tabulated was reportedly accurate, creating a paper ballot which did not reflect the voters’ choice.
The bottom line: Plaintiffs in the lawsuit hope to win at the trial by demonstrating why touchscreen BMDs cannot be used safely. The judge also emphasized that a mutually agreeable negotiated resolution with the Secretary of State’s office would be in the public interest.
By the way, as the plaintiffs note, balloting security could be implemented early next year, since Georgia has long-standing fail-safe voting system statutes that permit scanner-tabulated, hand marked ballots for just such problems with the touchscreen component of the system.
https://jamesmagazinega.com/2023/11/13/ ... stem-case/