Former Gov. Roy Barnes’ law firm will represent Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp in a lawsuit that a national election transparency advocacy group filed to force the state to overhaul its election system. The Department of Administrative Services has replaced Attorney General Christopher Carr with Barnes Law Group to represent Kemp, the state Election Board and others named in the case, Kemp spokeswoman Candice Broce said. The Charlotte-based Coalition for Good Governance, led by Executive Director Marilyn Marks, has said that reported security lapses show the state’s system is “vulnerable and unreliable” and should not have been used for the 6th Congressional District runoff race in June — nor should it be used in next week’s election. Kennesaw State University runs the Center for Elections Systems and is also a defendant in the lawsuit. … KSU said the server that had been examined by the FBI was wiped so it could be repurposed, and that the FBI had a copy of the data that were on the server.
Broce pointed to a Fulton County Superior Court judge’s finding in June that there was no evidence that Georgia’s voting systems were “unsafe, inaccurate, and impracticable.” The pending case addresses the same issues from the coalition and other Georgia voters, but Kemp’s office said it expects the same outcome.
“This far-fetched conjecture erodes public confidence in our elections without good cause,” said John Salter, an attorney with Barnes Law Group. “Putting plaintiffs’ proof to test will confirm Secretary Kemp and the state Election Board executed the election laws of our state reasonably and fairly.”
Marks stood by her accusations against the state’s voting system. “The far-fetched conjecture here is that they were operating according to the law when they destroyed the records,” Marks said. “A responsible election official does not … run an election on a system that they know to be compromised.”
Full Article: Former Gov. Roy Barnes’ firm to represent Georgia in lawsuit.