ATLANTA (CN) — A federal judge will decide within days whether to force Georgia to abandon its electronic voting machines ahead of the November election in favor of paper ballots.
U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg called an emergency hearing Wednesday to determine whether an ongoing lawsuit alleging that Georgia's electronic voting machines are susceptible to "malicious manipulation" will end with Georgians casting their votes using paper ballots instead of touchscreen voting machines.
The Coalition for Good Governance claims in their lawsuit that Georgia's 27,000 direct-recording electronic voting machines are vulnerable to hacking and are prohibitively difficult to secure since they lack a physical paper trail backup.
Totenberg said she will decide whether to issue a preliminary injunction forcing the switch to paper ballots Friday or Monday.
During Wednesday's day-long hearing, attorneys for Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp argued that a switch to paper ballots mere weeks before early voting is scheduled to begin would cause chaos and would erode voter confidence in Georgia's electoral system.
Kemp, a Republican, is currently campaigning against Democrat Stacey Abrams to win the race for Georgia governor.
Attorneys for Kemp argued that the plaintiffs have no legitimate standing to request the injunction since there is no evidence that Georgia's election results have been tampered with or that the state's electoral system has been compromised by hackers.
"There is no issue to the plaintiffs in this room. Plaintiffs may not manufacture standing by sitting on the train tracks and waiting for a train to hit them. Plaintiffs currently have no injury ... If they want a paper ballot, they can get one. You can't manufacture standing based on fears of hypothetical harm," attorney John Salter, Jr. argued on behalf of the state.
"They are starting this court down a road to leave us without a system that works in November," Salter said.
But Totenberg expressed concerns to the packed courtroom.
"The reality is, times change. We are in a rapidly changing time as to what it means to have a system that is likely to be or have been hacked. [It's] different than what was in front of us in 2017," Totenberg said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the state hasn't done enough to ensure the integrity of Georgia's electoral system.
"The Secretary of State has literally done nothing," attorney David Cross said.
"Although defendants had a chance to reassure voters that the system has not been compromised, it's been crickets. This all means the right to vote is illusory. It's akin to whispering your vote to someone behind a curtain and hoping it's recorded. Defendants never argue the system is secure. They only attack our proposed relief," Cross continued.
If the plaintiffs' motion is granted, DRE machines will not be used during the November election or the December runoff election. The machines will be replaced with paper ballots which will be scanned using AccuVote optical scanners. The scanners are currently used to scan absentee ballots.
"Georgia has the resources [to do this]," attorney Robert Manoso argued on behalf of the plaintiffs. "Optical scanners are available and procedures are in place ... The biggest Georgia counties have not even begun training election officials yet. There may be some added cost, but any potential burden to the state is outweighed by the harm to plaintiffs."
But the state argued that the enormous increase in paper ballots would outpace Georgia's optical scanners.
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