Georgia election board approves rule to hand-count ballots night of election

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The Washington Examiner

Kaelan Deese
September 20, 2024

The Georgia State Election Board voted 3-2 on Friday to require counties to hand-count all ballots, in addition to machine tallies, in the 2024 election.

The decision, driven by the board’s Republican majority, means that ballots in Georgia will be hand-counted by election workers the night of Nov. 5 in addition to the normal machine tallies that take place. The move was celebrated by allies of former President Donald Trump, who believe that the changes will help alleviate concerns of voter fraud the former president raised four years ago in relation to President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the Peach State.

“GREAT NEWS!” former Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington said, praising the passage of the resolution. “HAND COUNT at precinct level to ensure the totals match with the machines … This is a HUGE win and was opposed by the Fake News, the Left, and Raffensperger.”

The decision also sparked some criticism from election officials and democracy advocates who fear it will cause delays, errors, and increased costs for the state. In the 2020 election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced six days after Election Day that there would be a statewide hand recount, and the results were not certified until Nov. 20.

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Cybersecurity expert trial testimony: Georgia election machines vulnerable to hacking

Clay Parikh testified that Georgia's Dominion Voting System machines could be hacked, as well as in other states where the same machines are used.

Natalia Mittelstadt

Sep. 30 2024

Georgia's election machines are vulnerable to hacking, according to a cybersecurity expert's trial testimony.

During a trial on Monday, cybersecurity expert Clay Parikh testified that Dominion Voting System machines in Georgia could be hacked, as well as in other states where the same machines are used, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported.

Parikh testified on behalf of the DeKalb County Republican Party, which sued the Georgia secretary of state's office over concerns regarding the security of the state's voting machines.

The county GOP claimed that the encryption keys that protect passwords for the voting machines were revealed in election databases that were released as part of records requests sent to four Georgia counties.

Parikh reviewed the snapshots of the counties’ databases following the 2020 election. He was able to access the encryption keys and find identical passwords that are also used with Dominion machines in other states, meaning access to one Dominion system allowed access to others.

He said that the system's security is a serious problem and that hackers could access the system and change the 2024 election's results without being detected.

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