Thread by @fbajak

A big win for voting integrity advocates: Federal judge orders Georgia to scrap unreliable, hack-prone voting machines after 2019 apnews.com/abd2949881514e…

This prohibition applies to the entire centrally managed voting system that Georgia uses, not just the paperless electronic machines.

From the ruling: "Georgia’s current voting equipment, software, election and voter databases, are antiquated, seriously flawed, and vulnerable to failure, breach, contamination, and attack."

Judge Totenberg calls the gaping security hole discovered on Georgia's central election server _ and the subsequent wiping of server hard drives after the lawsuit challenging the system was filed the lawsuit "early talismanic events" in the saga.

The judge also decries "the perilous vulnerability and unreliability of (Georgia's) electronic voter registration system and dings defendants _ Gov. Brian Kemp was among them when as secretary of state he oversaw voting _ for "inconsistent candor" with the court.

Among jaw-dropping details in Georgia election opinion: state officials never patched a security flaw discovered in 2006 by @HarriHursti in the Accuvote TSX electronic voting machine used statewide "or made any upgrades to protect the integrity of its DRE machines."

@HarriHursti More from the judge's ruling: After the server-wipe fiasco, Georgia hired voting system vendor ES&S to build its ballots. For the 2018 midterm elections, three ES&S contractors did this from their homes under security parameters unknown to the state official responsible.

@HarriHursti The contractors' Internet-connected home computers presented just one of many infection routes difficult or impossible to detect for malware that could potentially have manipulated election outcomes, the opinion says, citing @jhalderm testimony.

@HarriHursti @jhalderm The ruling exhibits keen familiarity with the state of research by the nation's leading election cybersecurity experts and cites reports by the National Academies of
Science and Senate Intelligence Committee

@HarriHursti @jhalderm A sad reflection of the state of U.S. election technology is that expert testimony in the Georgia voting lawsuit cites findings from 2006-2007 on the woeful vulnerability of machines still in use today.

@HarriHursti @jhalderm The other important finding of Totenberg's Georgia voting system ruling today is deficiencies and vulnerabilities in the state's voter registration database and electronic poll books. She ordered those addressed.

Judge Totenberg said she made sure in the 153-page order to "frankly recount" the past to ensure transparency in the future because the defendants (@BrianKempGA & co.) have "previously minimized, erased, or dodged the issues underlying this case."