July 29, 2018

Elections Director--please promptly forward to your Election Board Members.

Dear Georgia Board of Elections Member:

Many election boards across the state are meeting tomorrow to certify the July 24, 2018 primary. Tomorrow, or at your next meeting, please consider the urgent need to adopt paper ballots to secure the upcoming November election and your responsibility and authority to do so. 

Georgia’s and the nation’s election security has become an alarming topic of daily news, and you and your fellow county Election Board members have the ability to immediately secure your county’s November election. The purpose of this letter is to explain the election board’s authority and responsibility to adopt paper ballots for November’s election, and the necessity of taking prompt action to protect the upcoming elections. 

Your board of county commissioners has the authority to mandate optical scanning for counting paper ballots. We  have written your Board of County Commissioners to request that they act promptly to adopt paper ballots counted by optical scan. Separately and independently, the Board of Elections has the authority to declare the voting machines “impractical” for use in upcoming elections, and indeed they are unfit for use. The law calls for the use of paper ballots when such a declaration is made. It takes the County Board of Commissioners to mandate counting of those paper ballots by optical scan. 

Paper ballots are urgently needed in Georgia

Georgia has been repeatedly named as the largest-population state in the category of  most vulnerable states for election security failures. Paperless voting systems simply cannot be secured. Georgia voters learned only last week that  Russians probed Cobb and Fulton County election websites looking for vulnerabilities.

Georgia’s risk is exponentially increased because of its unique vulnerability to hacking and programming errors that cannot be mitigated because of using a paperless electronic system.  Compromised programs housed on a centralized state computer are used to program all voting machines, memory cards, and databases for each election. This approach creates a single point of failure. The system components have not been decontaminated since they were exposed for months on an insecure election server at KSU. These insecure components are being used in current elections. 

The  risk of compromised elections in Georgia is extreme , and the “warning lights are blinking red” for a cyber-attack in Georgia’s upcoming elections. The solution is relatively simple, quick and should cost less than the current touchscreen DRE elections.

See the  FAQ s and list of recommended reading to explain the risk of Georgia’s system. As well, it explains why Georgia’s current DRE system is prohibited by federal law. 

Board’s legal authority to adopt paper ballots 

Board of Elections have the authority to adopt paper ballots under the following provisions of Georgia law:
 
§ 21-2-281. Use of paper ballots where use of voting equipment
impossible or impracticable
In any primary or election in which the use of voting equipment isimpossible or impracticable, for the reasons set out in CodeSection 21-2-334, the primary or election may be conducted bypaper ballot in the manner provided in Code Section 21-2-334. (below)
 
§ 21-2-334. Voting by ballot
If a method of nomination or election for any candidate or office,or of voting on any question is prescribed by law, in which the useof voting machines is not possible or practicable, or in case, at any primary or election, the number of candidates seeking nominationor nominated for any office renders the use of voting machines forsuch office at such primary or election impracticable, or if, for any other reason, at any primary or election the use of voting machineswholly or in part is not practicable, the superintendent may arrangeto have the voting for such candidates or offices or for such questions conducted by paper ballots. In such cases, paper ballotsshall be printed for such candidates, offices, or questions, and theprimary or election shall be conducted by the poll officers, and theballots shall be counted and return thereof made in the manner required by law for such nominations, offices, or questions, insofaras paper ballots are used.

As you consider the sober warnings by virtually all experts and federal agencies regarding the dangers of paperless systems like Georgia’s, it is incumbent on the Board of Elections to declare the DRE’s “impractical” to use.

DHS Secretary Nielsen recently declared such systems to be a “ national security concern.”  On Thursday Rep. Devin Nunes,  House Intelligence Committee called for ban on electronic voting , which he accurately calls, “dangerous.” The recent warnings about the inability of Georgia’s machines to tabulate a reliable and verifiable result echo those that have been escalating for years from virtually every voting system scientist in the nation. Georgia Tech Professor Richard DeMillo’s  op-ed warning of the risky voting system appeared today in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. 

The evidence is persuasive and overwhelming that it is unsafe and impractical to have voters vote on DRE equipment in November. 

Officials’ legal authority to use paper ballots

Paralleling  your authority as a board of elections, other officials also have authority to sideline the touchscreen DREs as unsafe and insecure: 

1.    The Secretary of State can decertify the touchscreen system, leaving the optical scan system as the remaining certified system. However, Secretary Kemp has irresponsibly resisted  repeated calls to do so
2.    The State Election Board can repeal their improper rule requiring that all in-person voters use touchscreens. They exceeded their authority by making this rule in 2005. The statutes do not permit this restriction. (Thousands of citizens are  petitioning the State Board to repeal this rule.) 
3.    The Board of County Commissioners can independently and affirmatively use its statutory authority to choose optical scanning of paper ballots as noted above.

In summary, the Board of Elections is in a key position to act promptly to secure the elections by mandating the use of paper ballots, and work with your Board of County Commissioners to mandate optical scanners for efficient counting.

Act now to correct voter registration rolls

Some counties are learning that their voter registration rolls contain  hundreds of voters assigned to the wrong districts.  DeKalb and  Habersham counties have recently cited as examples.  Please require that your staff immediately undertake an audit of the voter rolls for accuracy and proper jurisdictional assignments

Audit the election 

The Board of Elections should develop post-election procedures to test and audit the results of a paper ballot election. The optical scanners and central tabulators are insecure and compromised as well, but paper ballots create the audit trail to test the results for accuracy. 

Summary

Please consider this urgent matter and its utmost importance in protecting Georgians’ most fundamental right. 

Feel free to call Marilyn Marks, Coalition for Good Governance, at 704 292 9802 if you have questions about this process. Click here for  FAQs.

Marilyn Marks
On behalf of  Coalition for Good Governance and its Georgia-based members


Dana Bowers, Ray Dafrico, Laura Digges, Packy McKibben, Megan Missett, 
on behalf of  Georgia Votes Paper