In Major 143-Page Ruling, Federal Court Blocks Georgia’s Use of Paperless DRE Machines after 2019, Requires Paper Backup System for 2020 if New BMD System Not Ready, and Requires Improvements to State Voter Registration System

You can find Judge Totenberg’s extensive and thoughtful opinion at this link.

The court issued a preliminary injunction and the state could appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. But this opinion marshals a great deal of evidence as to the problems with Georgia’s existing system and, just as importantly, describes state officials’ refusal to take steps to improve things in the past.

The court did not weigh in on new controversy surrounding Georgia’s new BMD system, expected to be rolled out for 2020, which will print out ballots with a bar code and the name of the candidates on the ballot. Some election security and voting rights experts oppose BMD systems that use the bar (or QR) code rather than the candidate names printed on the ballots for the machine count of ballots. The names on the ballot would be the basis for any manual recount of ballots.