Voting Rights Advocates challenge Legality of Georgia’s New Voting System

On Friday, the Coalition for Good Governance and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Atlanta counsel Bruce Brown, Cary Ichter, and Seattle/Denver attorney Robert McGuire Robert McGuire, filed a supplemental complaint in federal court challenging the new electronic voting system that Georgia is rushing to implement in time for the March 2020 primary election.  The suit alleges that the new voting system is vulnerable to security threats and its results unverifiable, even though it produces paper records, and is in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. “The new electronic system converts voters’ votes and ballots into undecipherable barcodes, forcing voters to cast a vote that they cannot read. The barcodes can be miscoded or hacked without detection. Every voter, not just legal scholars, can see why this method of conducting elections is unconstitutional. We look forward to the first-in-the-nation legal challenge to this nontransparent voting technology,” said Marilyn Marks, Executive Director of Coalition for Good Governance.  “Georgia’s so-called ‘new’ Dominion electronic ballot marking device voting systems, like the DRE machines that were recently condemned by a federal judge, are fatally flawed,” said Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This historic lawsuit is necessary to preserve electoral integrity and to protect the right to vote in Georgia. We will continue fighting voter suppression in all of its forms and work to ensure a level playing field for voters across Georgia this election cycle.” Georgia’s proposed Dominion voting system is already required to be re-examined by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, after his office received a petition challenging the system’s security signed by thousands of voters.  The petition, which seeks a withdrawal of the certification and a re-examination of the Dominion system, says the proposed system does not meet Georgia’s voting system certification requirements and does not comply with the state election code. Friday’s complaint was filed on behalf of the same group of plaintiffs, including the Coalition for Good Governance and several Georgia voters, who successfully secured a landmark voting rights decision from a federal district court in Georgia less than a month ago in a challenge to the state’s outdated DRE voting system. United States District Court Judge Amy Totenberg’s order prevented Georgia election officials from using the current electronic DRE voting machines and system in any election after 2019, and requires the State to pilot hand-marked paper ballots in November 2019 in the event that the ballot marking devices recently enacted by the Legislature are not implemented in time for the March 2020 presidential primary election or any subsequent election.  Judge Totenberg also ordered significant relief intended to address problems with the State’s electronic poll books that can cause voters to be turned away at the polls. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law represents the Coalition for Good Governance and four individual voters in the case, which is styled Curling v. Raffensperger. Co-counsel in the case include Seattle/Denver attorney Robert McGuire and Georgia attorneys Bruce Brown and Cary Ichter. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. Now in its 55th year, the Lawyers’ Committee is continuing its quest to “Move America Toward Justice.”  The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes.  For more information, visit https://lawyerscommitee.org.