Monitor: Election 2020
A Warning to Georgia Voters To Ensure Their Votes Count
Despite major concerns, Georgians are set to vote on a new controversial electronic election system
All eyes are on Georgia this year, a purple state that could send two Democratic U.S. Senate candidates to Washington—possibly flipping the Senate. But with only a few weeks left before the presidential preference primary on March 24, Georgia voters remain gravely concerned about the reliability of the state’s brand new $104 million Dominion election system, which involves a dizzying combination of touchscreen ballot-marking devices (BMD), printers attached to every BMD, battery backups, electronic check-in poll pads, and one or two optical scanners at every precinct.
This new equipment brings with it a significantly higher electrical load and takes up far more space, which could overwhelm older and smaller polling places. (The battery backup should ensure uninterrupted power in the event of a power outage.) And because the Georgia State Election Board is still in the process of determining rules for operation, it’s highly unlikely that all poll workers will be completely trained on the new equipment by early voting, which begins Monday.
