The state of Georgia is asking a federal judge to rule in its favor in a long-running lawsuit alleging that the state’s voting system is inherently insecure.
Motions for summary judgment filed Monday said there’s no evidence that voting computers have been hacked or that votes have been counted inaccurately. In addition, election officials have said audits and recounts checked election results.
The state’s court filings come as the lawsuit over Georgia’s voting system, which combines touchscreens and printed-out ballots, could finally go to a trial this year, more than five years after the case started.
“Ultimately, there is no burden on the right to vote using the state’s chosen voting system by the mere existence of vulnerabilities — because every voting system has vulnerabilities,” wrote attorneys for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the State Election Board. “The numerous audits and hand counts of Georgia elections verify the accuracy of Georgia’s voting equipment.”
An attorney for the plaintiffs, David Cross, said there’s substantial evidence of flaws in Georgia’s voting system.
The lawsuit uncovered video surveillance showing that allies of Donald Trump worked with computer experts to copy election software in Coffee County in January 2021, and a federal cybersecurity agency last summer warned about security risks to Georgia’s voting system.
“We have a large and developed record, and one of the most important developments was the Coffee County situation,” Cross said. “They don’t have anything to say to defend a system that’s as easy to breach as that.”
The lawsuit asks U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg to prevent the use of the touchscreen-based voting system and instead switch to paper ballots filled out by hand.
If Totenberg denies the state’s motions for summary judgment, the case could go to trial in the months afterward.
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