Judge tasked with fixing Georgia voting system
ATLANTA — Georgia allowed its election system to grow "way too old and archaic" and now has a deep hole to dig out of to ensure that the constitutional right to vote is protected, according to U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg.
Now Totenberg is in the difficult position of having to decide whether the state, which plans to implement a new voting system statewide next year, must immediately abandon its outdated voting machines in favor of an interim solution for special and municipal elections to be held this fall.
Election integrity advocates and individual voters sued Georgia election officials in 2017, alleging that the touchscreen voting machines the state has used since 2002 aren't secure and are vulnerable to hacking. They've asked Totenberg to order the state to immediately switch to hand-marked paper ballots.
But lawyers for state election officials and for Fulton County, the state's most populous county that includes most of Atlanta, argued that the state is in the process of implementing a new system, and it would be too costly, burdensome and chaotic to use an interim system for elections this fall and then switch to the new permanent system next year.
A law passed this year and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp provides specifications for a new system in which voters make their selections on electronic machines that print out a paper record that is read and tallied by scanners. State officials have said it will be in place for the 2020 presidential election.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued Friday that the current system is so vulnerable to manipulation that it cannot be relied upon, jeopardizing voters' constitutional rights.
"We can't sacrifice people's right to vote just because Georgia has left this system in place for 20 years and it's so far behind," said lawyer Bruce Brown, who represents the Coalition for Good Governance and a group of voters.
Addressing concerns about an interim system being burdensome to implement, plaintiffs' lawyers countered that the state put itself in this situation by neglecting the system for so long and ignoring warnings. Lawyer David Cross, who represents another group of voters, urged the judge to force the state to take responsibility.
"You are the last resort," he told her.
Georgia's voting system drew national scrutiny during the contest for governor last November in which Kemp, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams.
The plaintiffs had asked Totenberg in August to order Georgia to use hand-marked paper ballots for that election. Though Totenberg expressed grave concerns about vulnerabilities in the voting system and scolded state officials for being slow to respond to evidence of those problems, she said a switch to paper ballots so close to the midterm election would be too chaotic.
"These are very difficult issues," she said. "I'm going to wrestle with them the best that I can, but these are not simple issues."
She recognized that the state had taken concrete steps since her warning last year, with lawmakers providing specifications for a new system, appropriating funds and beginning the procurement process. But she also said she wished the state had not let the situation become so dire and questioned what would happen if the state can't meet its aggressive schedule for implementing the new system.