As voters head to the polls in today's primary election across the state of Georgia, how they cast their ballots continues to be a major debate among many political candidates and security experts.
Following the 2016 presidential election and Georgia's own potential data breach of nearly 7.5 million voters after a security researcher "probed" the system in 2017, discussions of hacking, voter fraud and voting machine vulnerabilities have captured this election cycle.
The biggest critique of Georgia's all-electronic voting machines is a vulnerability of hacking and the inability to audit the machines without an independent paper record for recounts and accuracy checks.
Just last month, University of Michigan professor Alex Halderman changed votes in a hypothetical election before an audience in a demo at Georgia Tech. Using the same digital touch-screen machines used in real Georgia elections, Halderman showed the audience how to infect the voting machines with malware to guarantee his chosen candidate would win every time. He told the AJC the safest technology for voting is a paper ballot and his demo was a warning to voters for today's primary election.
Last week, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp---who's also running for governor in today's election---released a statement on his office's website that his agency "confirmed a thorough and successful reexamination of the state’s voting system currently in use during the 2018 election cycle." Kemp said his team believes the system is accurate and safe.
“I am confident that the current system, which is tested by experts for every election, continues to properly capture and reflect all voters’ choices," he said.
According to Kemp's office, the examination involved a mock election where random votes were cast on random equipment in three counties over three consecutive days. All votes were reported correctly on the tested machines.
A nonprofit and a group of Georgia voters suing Kemp's office don't agree. Attorney David Cross with Morrison & Foerster represents the plaintiffs in the case Donna Curling v. Brian Kemp, who are asking a Northern District of Georgia judge to order a preliminary injunction against Kemp's office from using Georgia's voting machines in November. Instead of digital-only ballots, the plaintiffs are asking the state to implement machines that combine paper records with digital counting like other states.
Cross said voters ballots were absolutely not safe on the devices being used in today's primary.
"They’re still using these DRE’s that have no paper trail…there’s no way to audit the information that comes out of the machines," he said.
While the machines themselves are not connected to the internet, Cross said the devices are still vulnerable to malware similar to the hacking demonstration at Georgia Tech last month.
"The states that still defend this will say that these machines are secure because they aren’t connected to the internet, but that’s just misleading," he said. "It doesn’t address the vulnerabilities of the machines."
When asked about Kemp's recent statements about the safety of the voting machines, Cross called the analysis "unthinkable." He referred to a recent story in the Washington Post that found 95 percent of digital security experts believe state election systems are not sufficiently secure from cyberthreats. Cross questioned how Kemp's office could come to the conclusion that these systems are safe without an independent, robust analysis by a third party and a majority of security experts claiming the opposite.
"It’s just astonishing to hear Kemp say that because it’s absolutely not correct," he said.
All seven candidates for the Secretary of State race agree that Georgia voting systems need a revamp, but disagree on the type of technology that should be implemented, according to the AJC.
Republican state Sen. Josh McKoon ran a campaign ad where he beats a Georgia voting machine with a baseball bat a la "Office Space." He is said to prefer digital touchscreens that print paper receipts for voters to review.
State Rep. Brad Raffensperger, R-Johns Creek, and Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner for Rockdale County RJ Hadley, a Democrat, also favor touchscreen machines.
Democrat John Barrow, who served in Congress for 10 years, and state Rep. Buzz Brockway, R-Lawerenceville, have supported a paper-and-pen voting system with scanning machines.
Former Alpharetta Mayor David Bell Isle and former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler, D-Lithonia, have stated they prefer a hybrid system where voters would fill out paper ballots, insert them into a digital machine and receive a printed ballot receipt.
