U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said Friday that Georgia allowed its election system to grow “way too old and archaic,” adding that the state must work to ensure the constitutional right to vote is protected.

Georgia is already planning to implement a new statewide voting system next year, but Totenberg must decide whether the state must immediately overhaul its existing system and adopt an interim solution for special and municipal elections slated for this fall, according to The Associated Press.

ADVERTISEMENT

Election integrity advocates and individual voters sued the state in 2017 to get it to immediately adopt paper ballots amid fears that its touchscreen voting machines are unsecure and susceptible to hacking. However, lawyers for Fulton County — which includes most of Atlanta — and state election officials say that such a rapid transition would be too costly and chaotic while the state is already working to implement a longer-term solution.

A law signed this year provides guidelines for a new system that would include electronic voting machines that print out a paper record, which is read and tallied by scanners. State officials have said the system would be ready for the 2020 election.

However, plaintiffs have argued that the current system is so vulnerable that it jeopardizes voters’ constitutional rights ahead of elections this year.

“We can’t sacrifice people’s right to vote just because Georgia has left this system in place for 20 years and it’s so far behind,” said lawyer Bruce Brown, who represents the Coalition for Good Governance and a group of voters, according to the AP.

Plaintiffs have also dismissed arguments that the cost would be burdensome to implement an interim system, saying the state has put itself in its current position by waiting so long to reform how it conducts elections.

Totenberg appeared conflicted at the end of the two-day hearing, the AP noted. Though Totenberg has previously said switching to paper ballots so close to local elections would be too burdensome, she has criticized state officials sharply for being slow to recognize the system’s vulnerabilities.

“These are very difficult issues,” she said, according to the AP. “I’m going to wrestle with them the best that I can, but these are not simple issues.”

The AP reported that the request for proposals states that vendors must be capable of delivering voting machine equipment before March 31 — a week after the state's presidential primary election on March 24.

An attorney representing Georgia election officials told Totenberg that the the state will announce the new system's selection in "a matter of days."

Georgia’s voting system was thrust into the national spotlight during the 2018 gubernatorial race, in which Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly lost to Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp.