On Friday, @GaSecofState 's office announced they were ceasing all pre-election testing statewide of the voting equipment for the Nov. election, stating that there was a "database error." Hmmm.
Here's what they sent counties:
2/ "We will try to minimize the delay it will cause." That sounds uncertain, when the testing schedule was woefully inadequate anyway.
On Sept. 10, we argued to the Court that the State was grossly shortcutting requiring machine testing. (2020 not good yr for shortcuts.)
3/ Now counties have to wait for a new database and have a do-over of voting machine and scanner testing? Early voting starts on Oct. 12!! This means that 11 business days out, they have no tested machines.
There is no way this is going to work well. We let the Court know.
5/ On Saturday, a couple of press reports raised the concern, making it quite public. For example--11alive.com/article/news/p…
6/ But SOS-favored reporter writes a story to try to minimize the problem, stating it was a "potential problem" in two counties, that caused screen problems under certain unusual circumstances. A "database problem?" Doesn't sound right.
7/ In both the @gpbnews and the AJC stories, the "two counties" were not named. No doubt the counties fear retribution from the SOS for reporting this supposedly minor problem.
The SOS cannot say when this problem will be fixed.
What is really going on here?
8/ We @CoalitionGoodGv believe that the problem is considerably more extensive than the "sometimes flipping screen on the Senate race problem." It is likely that there is a serious database problem impacting paper ballots.
We're standing by to do discovery next week.
9/ Saturday we issued public records requests to all 159 counties to seek their communications and impacts related to this sudden halt in the testing. We will surely get some good information, although some will avoid answering.
10/ We are pretty confident that there is more to this story than the SOS is telling voters. Stay tuned.
11/ And please help us continue this work. @CoalitionGoodGv has no overhead or salaries, only interns and attorneys get paid. But lawsuits are expensive!!
Thanks, @cklaus1 for focus on this! Perhaps now it will get attention it has needed. The press has repeatedly declined to cover this, and written it off as nothing new or important. There was opportunity to mitigate, and GA SOS just laughed it off and made jokes about it. 1/
2/ This extreme democracy-threatening vulnerability could have been easily mitigated by using hand marked paper ballots, counted by scanners with robust post-election audits. But states with this vulnerability are certifying the Nov election w/o even checking, ignoring the risk.
3/ Even now, the Sen. Bob Casey PA recount should heed this and demand a hand recount, not machine recount! It’s so simple, but would take 2-3 days. Officials don’t want to be bothered. 70% of PA voters voted by hand marked ballots. Just count them, independent of software!
"No concerns" about the "consistent" ballot secrecy problems that the St. Elec. Bd. Chair is finally acknowledging after refusing for years to deal with this violation of voters' constitutional rights and violating GA and federal law. 🧵1/
3/ The problem rarely can be remedied in the polling place. Turning machines to wall often allows a voter aisle way so that passing voters see vote displays of others. Sadly, SOS/ SEB pressure has "normalized" this constitutional violation.
Hey, @bluestein, @markniesse , can you explain why Dems and officials are against this rule to account for the NUMBER of ballots (not votes!) before sending the ballots and memory cards to HQ?
It is standard requirement in most states, including bluest of states. 1/
2/ Ballots are often found in scanner write-in bins, emergency bins, scanner crevices long after the election. Test ballots are found in scanners. The right time to collect and RECONCILE and account for all ballots is before workers and watchers leave the polls.
3/ If I were poll worker and told to take ballots to office from polling place and no one would inventory them to count the number of ballots they were giving me before I left ,I would refuse the job. I don't want to be responsible for bringing too few or too many!
Coffee County again! It appears that the Bd. of Commissioners is trying to block the Bd. of Elections from initiating an independent investigation of the massive voting system breaches.
2/ The theft of the voting system software that Trump's allies arranged and paid for has never been meaningfully investigated.
Sec. Raffensperger and St. Elec. Bd told the federal court in 2022 that there was "active and ongoing" investigation, but that was false!
3/ SOS investigator testified in court that he was told to "open a file, but hold off" on actually investigation. No investigation was done.
Eventually, they gave it to GBI to do criminal part of the investigation, but did nothing on the security issues or civil violations.
The debate about the Fulton Co. lawsuit on certification continues to lack context of how GA elections work. The progressive groups opposing the fundamentals of this lawsuit may be find it backfires on them. They really don't want what they seem to be asking for here. 1/
2/ Yes, while certification is SUPPOSED to be "ministerial" and required if there is an accurate canvass of votes, the opponents don't understand that GA doesn't have meaningful canvassing. An election board should NOT just blindly sign whatever pops out of the machines!
3/ The Sec. of State office has no required forms or procedures for canvassing. We often see that the number of voters is not reconciled to the number of ballots. It is not unusual to find AFTER certification, stray memory cards of ballots or ballots left in scanner not counted.
GA voters are getting alerts in top right corner of their MVP's like below. For many voters, the message is NOT TRUE. ✖️ Ineligible voters are getting this message too.
Why did SOS do this? 🤷♀️ Ask him. 1/
2/ You can vote in a runoff contest in the same party you voted in during the May primary. You cannot switch parties for the runoff. If you voted only nonpartisan ballot or did not vote, you can vote in either party's runoff. For example....
3/ If you voted a D ballot in May, but the only county runoff is the R sheriff's primary, you are not permitted to vote in the runoff. If you voted an R ballot or nonpartisan ballot, or did not vote at all, you CAN vote in the R sheriff's runoff.