ATLANTA — Republicans in Georgia are calling on its Republican Secretary of State to address a potentially vulnerable state election system following a report indicating chances of a cybersecurity threat.

University of Michigan Prof. J. Alex Halderman, on behalf of Donna Curling, the plaintiff in a 2021 lawsuit to ban electronic voting machines in Georgia, performed a security analysis of Fulton County’s ImageCast X ballot marking devices and associated equipment which are used in Georgia elections.

In 2020, Georgia moved to the new voting machines comprised of ballot scanners and ballot marking devices manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems.

Halderman’s report notes that Georgia is unique in using the devices statewide as the primary method of in-person voting, stating that the “unusual arrangement places potentially malicious computers between Georgia voters and their paper ballots.

“In contrast, in most of the United States, voters mark paper ballots directly by hand, and (ballot marking devices) are reserved for those who need or request them,” the report states. “Georgians who vote at a polling place generally have no choice but to use the BMDs.”

During his analysis, Halderman he and his assistant spent a total of approximately twelve person-weeks studying the machines, testing for vulnerabilities, and developing proof-of-concept attacks.

“I played the role of an attacker and attempted to discover ways to compromise the system and change votes,” he said, “Many of the attacks I successfully implemented could be effectuated by malicious actors with very limited time and access to the machines, as little as mere minutes.”

Following the release of the 96-page report, which reported six potential attacks, the Georgia Republican Party renewed its call to pursue more efforts to ensure election security.


”Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are rightly dismayed that no attempt is being made to address the vulnerabilities identified by the report before the 2024 Presidential Election,” claimed newly-elected Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon. “Given the breach of confidence in recent election cycles, plagued with irregularities, now more than ever Georgians deserve to know their votes are secure.” 

In a statewide call with elections officials in May, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office announced that this year, the state will begin piloting a new Election Assistance Commission-certified version of Democracy Suite, equipped with improvements in usability, functionality, technology and security.

However, the statewide move to the updated software will occur after the 2024 election cycle to allow the state and counties to focus on executing municipal elections and running the Presidential elections, Raffensperger said.

Republican Lt. Governor Burt Jones argued that such updates should be implemented ahead of the highly anticipated Presidential election.

“I’ve requested a meeting with the Secretary of State’s Office to discuss the recent report outlining potential vulnerabilities within our voting system and their decision to wait until after the 2024 elections to address it,” Jones said. “With ongoing cyberattacks on the rise everyday, we must be vigilant about protecting and securing our voting system from any future interference in our elections.”

In response to Republicans’ comments regarding election security, Raffensperger continues to reference a July 2022 report by MITRE’s National Election Security Lab.

The company had been retained by Dominion Voting Systems Corp. to provide an independent technical review of claims made in Halderman’s report concerning the security of election devices in Georgia.

In their review, MITRE found that Halderman’s “five of six attacks were…non-scalable, impacting a statistically insignificant number of votes on a single device at a time. One attack was technically scalable but also…infeasible due to access controls in place in operational election environments, access required to Dominion election software, and access required to Dominion election hardware.”

“The risks outlined in the researcher’s report are theoretical and imaginary,” said Raffensperger. “…For years, election deniers have created a cottage industry of ever-shifting claims about conspiracies to change votes, steal elections, and undermine voter confidence. (The MITRE) report says it all: voting machines do not flip votes. Cast ballots are counted as the voter intended. Georgia elections are secure.”

Added Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Georgia SOS: “It should be obvious that with three months of completely unlimited, completely unrestricted access to any system in a laboratory environment, smart people can create hypothetical situations showing theoretical manipulation of those systems. The procedural safeguards we have in place mitigate these hypothetical scenarios from happening. It’s extremely unlikely that any bad actor would be able to exploit our voting systems in the real world. The system is secure.”

Claims of wrongdoing by two Fulton County election workers dismissed

The State Election Board on June 20 dismissed an investigation into alleged malfeasance during the 2020 election at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, with the investigation concluding that allegations made against the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, and specifically, two election workers, were false and unsubstantiated.

According to a news release from from the SOS office, the investigation included Secretary of State investigators, and special agents with the GBI and FBI.

The news release states that through the course of the investigation,  “three law enforcement agencies reviewed the entire unedited video footage of the events in question surrounding [the two election workers] at State Farm Arena,” and reviewed social media posts allegedly made by a Fulton County election worker stating they engaged in election fraud, which was found to created by a third party who “admitted he created a fake account and confirmed the content that was posted on the account was fake.” 

“We remain diligent and dedicated to looking into real claims of voter fraud,” Raffensperger said. “We are glad the State Election Board finally put this issue to rest. False claims and knowingly false allegations made against these election workers have done tremendous harm. Election workers deserve our praise for being on the front lines.”

The news release adds that One America News Network agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the two Fulton County election workers accused of malfeasance, paying a settlement and issuing an on-air retraction of the false allegations they amplified. A defamation claim against Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for Donald Trump, who initially aired these claims before the Georgia Senate, is still pending in court. 

Fulton County has endured much of attacks against Georgia for unfounded claims of election fraud in the 2020 general election, spearheaded by then-President Trump, who lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by approximately 12,000 votes.