Georgia: Petition for paper ballots in Georgia denied by state board | Atlanta Journal Constitution

The Georgia State Election Board voted unanimously Tuesday to deny a request to require hand-marked paper ballots in November’s election. The board’s 4-0 vote came one day before a federal judge ill consider a lawsuit seeking to mandate paper ballots in the Nov. 6 general election. Election integrity advocates say Georgia’s electronic voting system is untrustworthy and could be vulnerable to hackers, but election officials say it is accurate and secure. “It’s entirely too close to the election to make a massive change,” said Ralph Simpson, a member of the State Election Board, to voters trying to switch to paper ballots. “We haven’t heard any evidence that any of the things you describe have actually occurred in Georgia. They’re either manufactured or imagined.”

Georgia: Secretary of State says switching back to all-paper voting is logistically impossible | Ars Technica

A group of activists in Georgia has gone to court with a simple request to election officials: in the name of election security, do away with electronic voting entirely and let the more-than 6.1 million voters in the upcoming November 2018 election cast ballots entirely by paper. Georgia is just one of five American states that use purely digital voting without any paper record. As part of this ongoing federal lawsuit, known as Curling v. Kemp, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's office says that such a change would be "reckless" with the election less than 60 days away. Plus, modifying the voting process would be too expensive, too unwieldy, and, in the end, not worth it. "Plaintiffs raise only spectral fears that [Direct Recording Electronic machines] will be hacked and votes Miscounted," John Salter, an attorney representing the state, wrote in a recent court filing.

Georgia: Hearing set to consider switching Georgia to paper ballots | Atlanta Journal Constitution

A federal judge could rule Wednesday on a far-reaching request to switch Georgia from electronic to paper ballots just eight weeks before November’s election. Changing the state’s voting system on short notice would be a dramatic change, but concerned voters and election integrity groups say it would eliminate the possibility the state’s touchscreen machines, which lack a verifiable paper backup, could be hacked. They’ll be in court Wednesday to ask U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg for an injunction prohibiting election officials from using the state’s 27,000 direct-recording electronic voting units, or DREs. Instead, voters would use pens to fill in paper ballots by hand. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the defendant in the case, strongly opposes a quick move away from the voting system in place since 2002. He said electronic voting machines are secure and that a rushed transition to paper would result in a less trustworthy election system. But Donna Curling, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said Georgia’s electronic voting machines are inherently unsafe. If voting machines were penetrated by hackers, malicious code could rig elections, she said.

Georgia: Kemp could be forced to testify at paper ballot hearing | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Secretary of State Brian Kemp could be forced to testify at a hearing this month involving a federal lawsuit seeking to make the state switch to paper ballots. The elections security advocates who filed the complaint seek to serve the Republican candidate for governor with a subpoena to appear and testify at the Sept. 12 hearing before U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg. It’s unclear if he’ll have to appear, and his attorneys with the Barnes Law Group – recall that former Gov. Roy Barnes is representing Kemp in this complaint – declined to comment. But the judge could quash the subpoena if she determines it’s not necessary.

Georgia: Lawsuit requiring Georgia to use paper ballots in next election moves forward | WSAV

A federal judge will not dismiss a lawsuit filed against Georgia's Secretary of State which would require Georgia to move to paper ballots ahead of November’s election. The suit was filed due to concerns over the insecurity of Georgia’s voting systems. This means the case will move forward and both sides will present their arguments in front of a judge on September 17. Pleadings by Secretary Kemp's legal team refer to the experts saying Georgia needs paper ballots as "so-called experts" who are only Ph.D. candidates, hackers, or low-level functionaries.  They also use the term "Luddite." WSAV's Atlanta Capitol Correspondent, Ashley Bridges, spoke to a world-renowned cyber security expert who says our system is one of the worst in the country.  "I don't think of myself as a Luddite," says Dr. Richard DeMillo. In reality, Dr. Richard DeMillo holds nearly 50 years of expertise in computer science and cyber security, with a PhD from Georgia Tech, even serving as the university's Dean of Computing.  He says it's because he does understand the technology that he thinks Georgia has to throw it out. "I have an appreciation for the complexity it takes. Like most people that look at it objectively, it's about the worst in the country."  

Georgia: Voting locations closed across Georgia after Supreme Court ruling | Atlanta Journal Constitution

When a passionate crowd rallied to save polling places in rural Randolph County, it won a high-profile battle for voting access. But voters trying to preserve their local precincts are losing the war as voting locations are vanishing across Georgia. County election officials have closed 214 precincts across the state since 2012, according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That figure means nearly 8 percent of the state’s polling places, from fire stations to schools, have shut their doors over the past six years. Voting rights activists see the poll closures as an attempt to suppress turnout by African-American voters, but local election officials say they’re saving taxpayers’ money by consolidating precincts at a time when more Georgians are taking advantage of early voting.

Georgia: Voting Plan Has Drawn New Criticism, This Time Over How It’s Dealing With Voters Overseas | Buzzfeed

The state of Georgia has blocked all foreign internet traffic to its online voter registration site, BuzzFeed News has learned, a move that would do little to deter hackers but blocks absentee voters. The site, registertovote.sos.ga.gov, is accessible only to US IP addresses. The decision has outraged technologists and voting groups. In theory, it’s meant as a security measure, based on the idea that a person visiting the site is more likely to be a foreign hacker. But in practice, it has the opposite effect: Georgians abroad who don’t know how to reroute their internet traffic with tools like virtual private networks (VPNs) or Tor will be prevented from registering to vote. “This won't really do anything to dissuade a hacker. It will only turn away real voters,” said Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president of the US Vote Foundation, a nonprofit that helps Americans vote abroad. “A hacker, or even a determined voter, will just get onto a VPN and to a US IP address, and guess what? They’re in.”

Georgia: Voting companies demo paper ballots for Georgia | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Six election companies offered a first look Thursday at voting systems they’re trying to sell to Georgia, all of which have some sort of paper ballot combined with tabulation computers. All but one of the companies pitched touchscreen machines, similar to those currently in use, that print ballots as a backup to help ensure accurate results. The remaining company proposed hand-marked paper ballots, where voters would fill in bubbles next to their choices and then feed those ballots into scanning machines. Georgia’s elected officials are considering switching from the state’s 16-year-old electronic voting machines to a more secure system. Critics of the state’s current direct-recording electronic voting system say they’re concerned it could be hacked without any backstop.

Georgia: State under fire over voting machines | Yahoo News

When it comes to election interference in the 2018 midterms, critics say Georgia is ripe for the picking. The state uses dubious electronic voting machines that offer no paper backup so as to detect foul play, and have been shown to be easily penetrated. “These are old school voting systems. I call them old school because they are one of the few systems in the country that still don’t have a paper trail on them,” freelance journalist Kim Zetter told Grant Burningham, host of Yahoo News’ “Bots & Ballots” podcast. “So these are what are called direct recording electronic [DRE] machines. They’re touch screen machines. They were made initially by Diebold, and Diebold, if you’ll recall, had a lot of bad publicity back in 2004, 2005, when the source code for their touchscreen machines was exposed online, and researchers looked at it and found a lot of problems.”

Georgia: Companies vie to replace Georgia voting system | WXIA

The effort begins in earnest later this week to replace Georgia's elections system. Georgia’s current voting system is a very familiar electronic touchscreen that uses technology developed 20 years ago. A half-dozen companies have told the Georgia Secretary of State's office they are submitting proposals. Most of them appear to want to give voters a new touchscreen interface. After tapping their choices in the new systems, voters would hit the “print” button and produce a paper ballot, then submitting the paper ballot to a scanner. But several of the new systems translate voter choices into barcodes. And many election watchdogs are skeptical of them. "The problem with a barcode on a voter verified paper ballot is that the voter can’t actually verify the barcode. Because we can’t read barcode marks," said Susan Greenhalgh of the National Election Defense Coalition.

Georgia: SAFE Commission to review possible voting system replacements | Augusta Chronicle

Kemp, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, co-chairs the SAFE Commission with Harlem state Rep. Barry Fleming. The bipartisan committee includes two Democratic state legislators, six county elections officials, attorneys for the state Democratic and Republican parties and others. They won’t be put to use in Georgia anytime soon, but vendors interested in providing the state’s new voting system will present their wares Thursday in Grovetown. At the second meeting of the Secure, Accessible and Fair Elections (SAFE) Commission, vendors who responded to the state’s recent request for information on options for replacing Georgia’s voting system are invited to present their products to the statewide panel.

Georgia: Elections board takes less than a minute to reject proposal to close 7 of 9 polling places in majority-black county | CNN

In a meeting that lasted less than 60 seconds, a Georgia elections board voted down a plan Friday to close seven of a majority-black county's nine polling places ahead of November's midterm elections. Critics had said the plan to consolidate polling places in Randolph County, Georgia, was a brazen attempt to suppress the black vote in Georgia's governor race, which pits former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams, who is black, against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is white.

Georgia: Consultant who proposed closing precincts fired | Atlanta Journal Constitution

The elections consultant who proposed closing most voting locations in a majority African-American rural Georgia county has been fired ahead of a vote Friday on consolidating precincts. The proposal to shutter seven of the county’s nine precincts before the Nov. 6 election appears unlikely to pass, said Randolph County Attorney Tommy Coleman. Coleman fired the consultant, Mike Malone, in a letter dated Wednesday. Malone’s recommendation to close precincts before the election for Georgia governor received widespread opposition from voters and elected officials. Critics of the plan said it would have suppressed turnout in the governor’s race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp.

Georgia: Voter registration website blocks international traffic | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Georgia election officials are blocking computers from outside the United States from viewing voter registration websites because of security concerns. Anyone trying to access the state’s online voter registration system or My Voter Page from an international internet address will see a message saying “Access Denied,” along with contact information for assistance. The sites were removed based on advice from private security vendors and the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center, which provides cyber threat monitoring for governments, said Candice Broce, spokeswoman for Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Voters living overseas, including those in the military, can still request absentee ballots and voter registration applications online.

Georgia: Backlash erupts over poll-closing plan in black county | Associated Press

A predominantly black county in rural Georgia is facing a nationwide backlash over plans to close about 75 percent of its voting locations ahead of the November election. County officials say the locations are inaccessible to those with disabilities; critics say the closures will disenfranchise black voters ahead of an election in which a black candidate is running for governor for the first time. The Randolph County elections board is considering a proposal to eliminate seven of nine polling places in the county. The seven precincts in question don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, county officials and an independent consultant say. Longtime Randolph County attorney Tommy Coleman acknowledged in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the timing of the move could appear strange. The polling places were used during the May 22 primary election and July 24 primary runoff, and officials have known about ADA compliance problems in the county for at least six years.

Georgia: Randolph County Can’t Back Up Its Excuse For Plan To Disenfranchise Black Voters | HuffPost

Officials in a majority-black Georgia county accused of trying to close almost all polling places to make it harder for black people to vote claimed last week that the locations couldn’t be used because of accessibility problems for people with disabilities. But Randolph County doesn’t have a single recent report, analysis or document supporting the idea that it needs to close seven of its nine polling places due to accessibility issues, a lawyer for the county told HuffPost on Tuesday in response to a public records request. HuffPost requested records from the county dating back to March 1, 2018. The county hired Michael Malone, an outside elections consultant now pushing for the closures, on April 2. But according to the county, it has no written record of evidence to back his recommendations. “There is no document, report or analysis studying the handicap accessibility of polling places in Randolph County and the cost of fixing them within the time frame specified in your open records request,” Hayden Hooks, an attorney with the firm Perry & Walters, which represents Randolph County, wrote in an email. The county has no record of such a document in the past year, Hooks added.

Georgia: Judge told paper ballots are feasible | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Switching to paper ballots before November’s election is the only way to ensure voting is secure and accurate, say plaintiffs trying to convince a federal judge to discard the Georgia’s electronic voting machines. The court filing was made Monday in a lawsuit from voting integrity advocates who sued to prevent the state from using its 27,000 touchscreen machines, which they say could be hacked without a trace. Attorneys for some of the plaintiffs wrote that it was “utterly ridiculous” for the state government to suggest changing to paper ballots would cause chaos. “The only change that a voter will notice as a result of this change is that, rather than touching an electronic screen, the voter will use a felt-tip pen to record his or her vote on a paper ballot and will place the paper ballot in a secure ballot box,” according to attorneys for the Coalition for Good Governance, an organization seeking transparent and verifiable elections.

Georgia: Georgia’s elections system desperately needs an update—but how? | Atlanta Magazine

Pop the hood of Georgia’s elections system and you’ll notice a lot of old, rusted parts, begging to be repaired or replaced. But if you ask Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee in this year’s gubernatorial contest, for a diagnosis, he’ll likely assure you that, despite a few loose screws and some oxidation on the battery, the eight-cylinder power propelling this motor has no problem carrying you from Point A to Point B—or running an election. Kemp, who elbowed Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle out of the race in the July 24 runoff election, is the overseer of Georgia’s elections engine, which will likely count well over 2 million votes to determine if he or his Democratic rival, Stacey Abrams, will claim the state’s top job after the November 6 general election. Some—including the Democratic Party of Georgia—take issue with the fact that Kemp oversees the procedures that are used to elect Georgia’s public officials, calling on him to resign from his elections czar post or recuse himself from involvement in the vote tabulation and certification. (Congresswoman Karen Handel stepped down when she held the job in 2010 to run for governor, but Cathy Cox held on to her position when she ran for governor in the 2006 Democratic primary.) Kemp has reportedly said he has no intention of resigning.

Georgia: Too late to switch to paper ballots, officials say | McClatchy

County election officials across Georgia say it’s too late to switch to paper ballots in the upcoming elections, despite warnings that hackers could easily penetrate the state’s antiquated electronic voting system and that Russia could unleash a new wave of disruptive cyberattacks. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg is expected to rule any day on whether the state must switch to old-fashioned paper ballots. Her ruling would come in response to a year-old lawsuit by citizen activists. They argue that the state’s current system of relying on electronic voting machines that lack a paper backup is “hopelessly compromised” and paper ballots are necessary to ensure public confidence in the results. Georgia is just one of many states dealing with the fallout of the U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 campaign and has compromised — or tried to compromise — state election systems across the country to disrupt the 2018 midterms elections. But interviews and court statements from Republican and Democratic county officials and from state election officials drew the same response: It’s just too late to make the switch.

Georgia: Voting rights activists move to block a plan to close two-thirds of polling places in a majority black county | The Washington Post

Voting rights activists in Georgia say they will launch a petition drive in an effort to collect enough signatures of registered voters to block a proposal to close more than two-thirds of polling precincts in a predominantly black county ahead of this fall’s general election. The plan to shutter the voting sites in Randolph County, a rural community about 2½ hours south of Atlanta, has drawn dozens of local residents and progressive groups to two public hearings in recent days. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a formal protest with the county’s board of elections. Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state, which oversees elections operations throughout the state, has issued a statement urging Randolph County officials to “abandon this effort.” Kemp also is the Republican nominee in one of the country’s most-watched gubernatorial contests. The Democratic nominee, Stacey Abrams, a former state legislator, is seeking to become the nation’s first black female governor.

Georgia: Kemp wants verifiable voting — after his race | Associated Press

Republican gubernatorial nominee Brian Kemp says Georgia's aging electronic voting machines should be replaced, coming around to a position critics say he's resisted for eight years as the state's top elections official. There's just one thing - Kemp says it can't be done in time for his own election this November. The secretary of state is asking companies for proposals to implement new machines that produce verifiable paper records in time for the next presidential election in 2020. Meanwhile, he's dismissing experts who say the electronic machines are susceptible to hacking and that there's no way to confirm the accuracy of their vote counts. Kemp is defending the system in place since 2002 as "accurate and secure" enough for this fall's elections, even though it produces no paper backups that can be audited to make sure each voter's choice is reflected in the tally.

Georgia: Counties respond to hacking, security threat | Atlanta Journal Constitution

As Georgians prepare to cast their ballots in a nationally watched gubernatorial race, the security and reliability of the state’s election system remains a point of concern for many voters and security experts. Polls show that a large percentage of Americans believe there’s a concerted effort underway by foreign entities to undermine American Democracy and promote discord, using everything from fake Facebook accounts to Russian Twitter bots. But perhaps nothing strikes fear in the hearts of voters in Georgia and across the country more than the notion that their ballots could be changed by hackers. In the metro area, elections officials in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Henry, Clayton and Fayette counties told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they are working with the Secretary of State’s office to ensure every ballot cast in November is counted and reported accurately. They say their systems and processes are battle tested and secure. Still, there’s a growing clamor for more precautions. The state’s weaknesses have been well documented. Georgia uses electronic voting machines and is one of only five states that don’t have paper backups that can be used to audit results.

Georgia: Voter records exposure raises election security concerns | SC Magazine

Despite Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp's contentions that reports questioning the security of the state's election systems are fake news, a breach discovered in 2016 exposed the records of more than six million George voters, according to a lawsuit. "The data was open to anyone in the world who had an internet connection," said Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, one of the plaintiffs in the suit cited by CNN. "Even when confronted with a security disaster, she noted, Kemp, who's currently running at a GOP gubernatorial candidate, blamed “managers under his supervision for their incompetence and [left] the security disaster without so much as a forensic review of the impacts of the security failures."

Georgia: Concerns over Georgia’s election security grow | WGCL

Concerns over Georgia's election security are growing as November's election draws closer. To advocate for you, we asked for a sit-down with the man running Fulton County's elections. CBS46 obtained new details about the extent of suspected Russian probing of some of Fulton County's website, and what going to paper ballots might really entail. Robert Mueller's indictment of a dozen Russians fueled the fire. "I think the Russians were mostly focused on public opinion through social media," said Richard Barron, the Fulton County director of registration and elections. Still, court documents reveal several Russian operatives checked out websites for Georgia and, specifically, Fulton and Cobb counties. Since we're advocating for transparency, we wanted to find out what that really means.

Georgia: Group files lawsuit to force Georgia to adopt paper ballots | The Hill

A coalition in Georgia is filing a lawsuit to force the state to adopt paper ballots in the upcoming midterm elections, a move it claims will improve election security. The Coalition for Good Governance is alleging in a federal lawsuit that Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, Georgia's current secretary of state, failed to adequately safeguard the state's voting system from a breach that allegedly left 6 million Georgia voters' records exposed, CNN reported. The group is claiming Georgia is one of the only states left that does not use a paper ballot, which makes it harder to verify election results. 

Georgia: 6 million Georgia voters’ records exposed: ‘Could have easily been compromised’ | CNN

Georgia's shotgun-toting, Trump-style Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp has sought to assure voters that his state's election system is secure and that any allegations to the contrary are "fake news." But Kemp, who is also the secretary of state in charge of Georgia's elections, is now being accused in a federal lawsuit of failing to secure his state's voting system and allowing a massive breach that exposed voter records and other sensitive election information. The allegations in the lawsuit come as the subject of election security has come into focus nationally, particularly as the November's midterm elections approach. The suit describes how a private researcher discovered the records of more than 6 million registered Georgia voters, password files and encryption keys could be accessed online by anyone looking. Days after the lawsuit was filed, technicians erased the hard drives of the server in question.

Georgia: Election Security Becomes A Political Issue In Georgia Governor’s Race | NPR

In the fall of 2016, as reports of Russian-backed hacking of state election systems were surfacing, Georgia's Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, rejected federal offers of help to secure his state's voting systems. "The question remains whether the federal government will subvert the Constitution to achieve the goal of federalizing elections under the guise of security," Kemp told a technology website. Now, Kemp is the Republican nominee to be Georgia's next governor, and in another election season where cyber-attacks are in the air, his record securing the state's elections is becoming a campaign issue. This past week, the Georgia Democratic Party called for Kemp's resignation, citing in part his response to Russian-backed hacking attempts of state voting systems in 2016.

Georgia: Companies asked to submit paper-based voting systems for Georgia | Atlanta Journal Constitution

Voting machine companies will submit proposals this month to replace Georgia’s touchscreens with hand-marked paper ballots or ballot-marking devices. The Secretary of State’s Office posted a request for information Wednesday to review companies’ voting systems and their costs, which could range from roughly $30 million to $150 million. A competitive bidding process could begin next year. Georgia has used electronic touchscreens since 2002, a voting system that lacks a verifiable paper backup to ensure accuracy. Election integrity advocates say electronic voting computers could be hacked.

Georgia: Activists collect tales of voting problems in Georgia primary | McClatchy

It appeared, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website, that Habersham County’s Mud Creek precinct in northeastern Georgia had 276 registered voters ahead of the state’s primary elections in May. Some 670 ballots were cast, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office, indicating a 243 percent turnout. But on Tuesday at 10 a.m., the number of registered voters on the secretary of state’s website was changed for Mud Creek to 3,704 registered voters, reflecting a more likely turnout of about 18 percent. The odd turnout figures last Friday were filed as part of a federal lawsuit against the state by election security activists that included a number of sworn statements and exhibits from activists and voters who experienced a series of bizarre and confusing issues at the state’s polling places. That confusion comes amid swelling public concern for the security of Georgia’s voting systems. Georgia is one of four states that uses voting machines statewide that produce no paper record for voters to verify, making them difficult to audit, experts say.

Georgia: State defends voting system despite 243-percent turnout in one precinct | Ars Technica

With worn-out clichés about the dead voting, Chicago used to be the poster child for voter fraud. But if any state is a poster child for terrible election practices, it is surely Georgia. Bold claims demand bold evidence, and unfortunately there's plenty; on Monday, McClatchy reported a string of irregularities from the state's primary election in May, including one precinct with a 243-percent turnout. McClatchy's data comes from a federal lawsuit filed against the state. In addition to the problem in Habersham County's Mud Creek precinct, where it appeared that 276 registered voters managed to cast 670 ballots, the piece describes numerous other issues with both voter registration and electronic voting machines. (In fact it was later corrected to show 3,704 registered voters in the precinct.)