Posted on 12/29/2020 11:40:42 PM PST by TigerLikesRoosterNew
A federal judge has denied a request to move all of this fall's municipal elections in Georgia away from "unsecure, unreliable and grossly outdated technology" and toward hand-marked paper ballots that are optically scanned and counted.
The order from U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg Thursday also requires the state to cease using its direct-recording electronic voting machines after 2019 and expresses doubts about the state's ability to roll out its new ballot-marking device system in time for the March 24, 2020, presidential primary election.
In the decision, Totenberg also directs the Georgia secretary of state's office to develop a plan to "address errors and discrepancies in the voter registration database" and have paper copies of poll books at each voting precinct.
The state must also create a contingency plan for the 2020 elections in case the new system is not completely rolled out. That includes designating several pilot jurisdictions that will use hand-marked paper ballots with optical scanners in their elections this fall.
A group of election integrity advocates and Georgia voters sued the secretary of state's office in 2017 alleging that the current DRE system is not secure and is vulnerable to hacking. Last year, Totenberg denied a similar motion for preliminary injunction that would have blocked the DREs from being used in the 2018 midterm election.
The current motion sought to prevent the machines from being used this fall in several hundred local elections.
Georgia Governor Signs Law Addressing Some Criticisms Of Contested 2018 Election POLITICS Georgia Governor Signs Law Addressing Some Criticisms Of Contested 2018 Election After a two-day hearing in July, Totenberg said deciding on the matter was "very daunting," as she heard cybersecurity experts express serious concerns about the security of Georgia's elections and the logistical concerns local elections officials had about switching to hand-marked paper ballots under a tight timeline.
Ultimately, Totenberg wrote that she deferred to the state's legislative and procurement processes to select and implement a new system in time for next year's elections.
"The Court remains concerned, based upon the entirety of the record evidence, about the State's capacity to manage a transition to paper ballots for the 2019 elections while overseeing and undergoing a simultaneous transition to the newly enacted voting system during this time," Totenberg wrote in the order.
On July 29, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Dominion Voting Systems would be the state's new elections vendor, winning a $107 million contract to provide new touch-screen machines that print out a paper ballot with a summary of the voter's selection plus a QR code that is scanned and stored.
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the nonprofit group Coalition for Good Governance and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, called the ruling a victory for election security advocates.
"This is the first time that a court in the United States has held that you cannot do electronic voting and it must be replaced," she said. Marks' group plans to sue to block the new ballot-marking devices from being used as well.
Raffensperger's office released a statement Thursday that his office was still reviewing the ruling and that he was "pleased the Court endorsed the policy decision of the state's elected officials to move to a paper ballot voting system in time for the 2020 elections while not disrupting 2019 elections."
This lawsuit was basically filed by The Coalition for Good Governance. I don't know their political leaning, but it seems neutral based on its mission statement.
https://coalitionforgoodgovernance.org/
Mission Statement
The interests of The Coalition for Good Governance are constitutional liberties and the individual rights of citizens, with emphasis on First Amendment Rights, elections, government transparency and accountability, open records and open meetings, due process, and equal protection of the laws.
We will engage in litigation and inform legislative policy on these issues.
We will use generally available means of education and communication to illuminate and shape public debates.
Marilyn R. Marks, Vice President and Executive Director In 2009, after a narrow loss to become the Mayor of Aspen, I recognized the vulnerabilities in Colorado’s election systems. I then devoted full time to election integrity litigation and lobbying efforts for more transparent and verifiable elections. I successfully litigated the effort to make Colorado ballots open public records for postelection reviews, followed by more than 25 election-related cases involving election transparency or voter privacy (“secret ballots”). After moving back east, I became the driving force behind the current legal challenge to Georgia’s unverifiable electronic voting system. I now reside in Charlotte, North Carolina.https://coalitionforgoodgovernance.org/bios/?doing_wp_cron=1609257138.9544560909271240234375
Why are they involved with our votes in Georgia? The organization is based in Colorado and a plaintiff in the Georgia lawsuit now resides in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Open letter from Marilyn Marks to fairVote head Rob Richie re Aspen CO 2009 IRV mayoral election
Amy Totenberg-another Obama judge. Also the sister of leftist NPR propagandist Nina Totenberg.
Judge Rules Fourth Time Against Switching to Paper Ballots in Georgia
Judge Amy Totenberg said in a 147-page order that while there were concerns with Georgia's ballot-marking device system and the state's rollout of the system, making changes this close to Election Day “could cause electoral disruption and potential voter confusion.”
SNIP
“We are deeply disappointed that Georgia voters will be voting in this important election on unreliable touchscreen machines that produce results that cannot be audited,” Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a plaintiff in the suit, said in an email.
More like Amy Totenkopf...
I find it interesting, that the Judaical Branch loves to meddle in election matters imposing themselves in the process, but after that process blows up, they deny every court case a hearing and refuse to clean up their own created mess. They decry lack of standing, filed too early, filed too late, wrong court.
About not cleaning up the mess, it is more than sweeping their previous blunder under the rug. Cleaning up the mess will help Trump win. It is a partisan bias at work.
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