Elections

Computer Experts Urge Georgia Election Officials To Eliminate Voting Machines For Paper Ballots

REUTERS/Bing Guan

Sarah Wilder Social Issues Reporter
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Multiple election experts urged Georgia election officials to replace voting machines they claim were compromised by an alleged breach of equipment with paper ballots in a letter sent Thursday to the Georgia State Elections Board.

Computer experts have obtained sensitive information from Georgia voting machines at the direction of Trump’s lawyers, according to The Washington Post. The lawyers asked a forensic data firm to look into county election systems in battleground states including Georgia, the outlet reported. (RELATED: ANALYSIS: Democrats Are Staging What Experts Say Is An Illegal Federal Takeover Of Elections)

“Media reports have recently confirmed allegations that Georgia’s voting system software was accessed and copied by several unauthorized individuals,” the experts wrote in the letter. “These individuals handled the sensitive files in a reckless manner, transferring them to numerous people over the internet, who also have no authority to possess the state’s voting software and data,” the experts continued.

The experts alleged when data was harvested from the voting machines, the voting machines were left vulnerable to cyberattacks which would compromise future elections.

“Georgia’s elections have a higher risk of compromise due to the reliance on computerized Ballot-Marking Devices (BMDs) to record vote selections for in-person voting,” the experts wrote in the letter.

“Georgia should immediately discontinue the universal use of the Dominion ICX BMD for in-person voters, and instead provide voters with emergency hand-marked paper ballots to be tabulated by the current system’s optical scanners,” the experts recommended, according to the letter.

Democrat Stacey Abrams is running against incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in Georgia. Abrams lost the gubernatorial election to Kemp previously in 2018. Kemp is currently leading Abrams by five and a half points, according to the Real Clear Politics average.