FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Coalition for Good Governance
Marilyn Marks, Executive Director
Over 1,450 Voters Demand Reexamination of
Georgia's New Voting System
Voters, five organizations challenge system certification
Atlanta, Georgia
(August 19, 2019) – A
petition
was filed Monday on behalf of over 1,450 registered Georgia voters from 100 counties requesting a mandatory re-examination of the Dominion Voting System recently selected by the Secretary of State. The contract for the new voting system was announced on July 29, 2019, and certified by Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger on August 9. According to the petition, the voting system fails to meet the requirements of Georgia Voting System Certification Rule 590-8-1-.01, and fails to comply with the Georgia Election Code. According to Georgia law, the Secretary of State is required to re-examine the machines upon proper request from ten or more citizens.
“The new barcode balloting voting system is fundamentally flawed, cannot meet Georgia’s Election Code and violates voting protections of the US Constitution,” said Marilyn Marks, Executive Director of the Coalition for Good Governance, “Voters will no longer tolerate unauditable electronic voting systems in Georgia, and are taking back control of their elections through actions like this petition that officials cannot ignore.”
“It appears the Secretary of State cut some corners to rush the certification of a new voting system,” said Susan Greenhalgh, Vice President of Policy and Programs for the National Election Defense Coalition. “For years the Georgia Secretaries of State have ignored the calls for secure, auditable elections provided by paper ballots. The new $100 million voting system was rushed through certification and still fails to provide voters with a trustworthy, auditable voting systems.”
Grounds for the challenge include six areas where the Secretary of State’s certification and the Dominion Voting System violate Georgia Election Code and Rules, including:
1)
Secretary Raffensberger failed to follow Georgia Election Code requirements for certifying the system. The Code requires that the Secretary of State base his certification decision on the report of the designated Georgia Certification Agent who is to compile a report on security testing, functionality testing, and evaluation of compliance with Georgia laws. No such agent was appointed and the required analysis was not prepared. Instead, Secretary Raffensberger unilaterally certified the Dominion System based solely on a functional test report.
2)
Georgia law requires the official ballot to be human readable.
The new system prints a barcode on the ballot summary card, and the scanner reads that barcode to generate vote tallies. Humans cannot read barcodes, and cannot know for whom they are voting when choices are embedded in barcodes. The system cannot comply with Georgia law requiring human readable ballots for counting.
3)
Georgia law requires that election results be audited. But the BMD Dominion Voting System cannot produce auditable results, according to the nation’s top cybersecurity experts and election auditing experts.
4)
The Dominion Voting System scanner records timestamps on each electronic ballot violating the secret ballot protections in GA law. Insiders with access to the encryption codes can match a voter with her ballot. Such scanners cannot be permitted to operate in Georgia’s elections.
5)
Secretary Raffensberger did not certify the electronic pollbook components of the Dominion system which directly impacts who votes and which ballot the voters receive.
6)
The wrong technical standards were used for the system testing. The Georgia Election Code requires that the voting system be certified under 2002 standards, and the Dominion Voting System is certified under 2005 standards.
Voting systems may not be used in Georgia until they are legally certified after undergoing a specified evaluation spelled out in the Georgia Election Code. Voters signing the letter for reexamination insist that the Secretary thoroughly examine the security of the system and its failure to comply with Georgia law.
“A candid and professional examination will determine that the system is not fit for Georgia’s public elections. Indeed, Texas evaluated the Dominion system, and its six professional examiners unanimously rejected it as subpar for Texas elections. If it’s not good enough for Texas voters, why should Georgia taxpayers spend $100M on it?” asked Jeanne Dufort, one of the citizen organizers of the petition.
“Georgia voters are clearly sick and tired of their Secretary of State's Office putting their votes at risk by purchasing and certifying more machines that fail the legal standard for safe and secured elections,” said Cam T. Ashling, Chairman of Georgia Advancing Progress PAC. “We can do better than this and must to protect everybody’s Constitutional right to vote in this democracy we all cherish.”
“Based on past performance as evidenced by recent testimony and Judge Totenberg’s opinion, there is little reason to believe that the Secretary of State has performed a good-faith evaluation of the Dominion voting system” stated Smythe DuVal, Executive Committee member of the Libertarian Party of Georgia. “The LPGA supports this effort to bring a transparent and honest evaluation process of any future Georgia voting systems that includes a robust cybersecurity risk assessment. This is a no-brainer, we must build voting systems that can be audited and verified in order to build and maintain public trust. We urge other political parties to join us in advocating for a reassessment.” DuVal was the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for Secretary of State.
The Constitution Party of Georgia, a co-sponsor of the petition, urged Secretary Raffensperger to diligently and candidly evaluate the security weaknesses in the Dominon barcode balloting system. Chairman Ricardo Davis said, “Our party platform calls for verifiable, auditable election processes and procedures. Rushing to spend $107 million on a voting system known to be insecure and faulty flies in the face of the Secretary’s claims to value fiscal conservativism, election security, and the integrity of how the State of Georgia conducts its elections.”
Aileen Nakamura of Sandy Springs who helped organize the petition noted the fact that over 1,450 Georgia voters from 100 counties signed the petition in a two day period. “Georgia’s elected officials must listen to the voters, who desperately want to make sure their votes will count. With cybersecurity issues at the forefront of national news, putting a computer between you and your vote is a terrible choice. Handmarked Paper Ballots are the gold standard according to every cybersecurity and election integrity expert – why doesn’t Georgia save over $70 million by switching to safe and secure technology that won’t go obsolete?”
Additional voters’ signatures received this week will be added to the petition via
the online form.
Coalition for Good Governance organized the ongoing federal court case seeking hand marked paper ballots in Georgia. (Curling v Raffensperger). The Court’s August ruling regarding Georgia’s unreliable DRE voting system can be accessed
here.
Coalition for Good Governance
is a non-partisan non-profit 501(c)(3) focused on transparent and secure elections.
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