Georgia election board not moving forward with GOP plan to fix election system flaw

Two Republicans on Georgia’s state election board Thursday criticized a proposal by their own party to address a flaw in Georgia’s voting equipment that can allow voters to be matched to their ballots after they have been cast.The software vulnerability does not allow votes to be changed or cast doubt on election results, but it could let someone see how others voted.That’s important because ballot secrecy is a fundamental right under the state constitution and violations could create an opening for legal challenges.A lack of ballot secrecy also can increase the danger of coercion to vote a certain way by family members or employers.Last week, the Georgia Republican Party and Republican National Committee asked the election board to require county election officials to collect and shuffle ballots at polling sites before they are cast.

That would prevent anyone from linking voters to their ballots by determining the time their vote was cast, the two groups said.Janelle King, one of four Republicans on the five-member board, said during a meeting Thursday that such a requirement would impose new burdens on county election officials, including possibly having to hire additional poll workers.She also raised concerns about ballots falling out during the shuffling process and then going uncounted.“I just have some major concerns about whether or not we are creating more problems while we are trying to address a problem that is an important issue,” she said.Carolyn Roddy, who was appointed to the election board by the Republican Party, said she had previously opposed a similar proposal and did not see any reason to change her position.She called the risk of coercion by family members or bosses a “small thing” that she didn’t think would affect the outcome of an election.

The RNC proposal “does more harm than good,” she said, noting it would go into effect just days before early voting was set to begin.Georgia is a presidential battleground state with ...