Election News and Updates
White County Passes Health Check of Election Equipment
(Cleveland, GA) – Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the successful audit of White County’s election infrastructure, both software and hardware, in preparation for the 2023 municipal elections and 2024 Presidential elections. In coordination with the White County election office, the Secretary of State’s office recently conducted health checks of the voting system, finding that White County’s election infrastructure remains secure, unaltered, and fully functioning as Georgia heads into a major election cycle.
These health checks are in conjunction with Secretary Raffensperger’s Four-Point Secure The Vote Plan for the 2024 election.
That plan includes:
1. Testing before the election (Logic and Accuracy Testing)
Each and every piece of voting equipment, in all 159 counties, is tested to assure each contest is voting properly, by testing every candidate and ballot position on the Ballot Marking Devices, and that all scanners are reading ballots properly.
2. Testing during the election (Parallel Monitoring)
Live election equipment will be randomly selected and tested during the active voting period, every day of voting from the start of early voting through Election Day. This testing will detect any active, ongoing threat.
3. Voter review and accountability
Since 2020, Georgia voters have had the ability to review their own ballot for accuracy before turning it in for tabulation. In 2020, the University of Georgia conducted a study of Georgia’s live elections and found that more than 80% of Georgia’s voters review their ballots.
4. Testing after the election (Risk Limiting Audits)
With the passage of HB 316 and SB129, Georgia now has robust post-election audit procedures in place to detect any anomalies in the outcomes of elections.
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State Focus on Security in Preparation for 2024 Elections
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s Elections Division announced on a call with county election officials the plan and timeline of security preparations for the upcoming Presidential Election Year.
Blake Evans, Georgia’s Elections Director stated on the call, “I don’t think there is a more tested voting system in the country than the one we have in Georgia. We passed every test after a close presidential race in 2020, including a hand-audit and a full recount. And it passed every test in high-profile elections in 2022 as well.” He said this while informing the counties that the state would be doing system security “Health Checks” in all 159 counties.
The system health check will examine election management systems, ballot marking devices, and scanners. It will include verifying HASH values to verify that the software has not been changed and remains the Democracy Suite 5.5A. The HASH values should match the original value from when the software and hardware were accepted by the state.
Mr. Evans also announced that Secretary Raffensperger’s office is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to conduct physical site security assessments of the storage and warehousing of all election equipment in each county.
The office also announced that there will be pilots of the recently Election Assistance Commission-certified version of Democracy Suite, 5.17, in 2023. This software has not been deployed in any election in any jurisdiction as of yet. The pilots will examine its full functionality in a real-world setting. Also, in reviewing the processes it will require an update of the nearly 45,000 pieces of voting equipment, along with the subsequent acceptance testing. This process will take tens of thousands of man-hours. Therefore, the statewide move to 5.17 will occur following the 2024 election cycle. This will allow the state and counties to focus on executing municipal elections and running the Presidential cycle. It also allows the state to put together a thoughtful, thorough plan to roll out the latest software.
“Election deniers and those with similar claims in the courts may want us to irresponsibly move faster to make this change”, said Raffensperger. “However, I have told our team we will move in a responsible, deliberate, and mature way that will put the needs of voters and our election workers first. I’m an engineer. To build a solid structure, you need a strong well laid foundation. That is what this plan does.”
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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #1 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research, and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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MITRE's National Election Security Lab Report
Dominion Voting Systems retained MITRE's National Election Security Lab to provide an independent review of various claims made by a researcher hired by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines. The MITRE report details the Election Security Lab's findings, and it concludes that the claims made by the researcher are operationally infeasible. Click Here to see the Report
Dominion Voting: Setting the Record Straight
Information about Dominion Voting Equipment and Georgia elections can be found by Clicking Here
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Launch of Georgia Registered Voter Information System – GARViS
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger held a press conference on Thursday, March 9th announcing the successful launch of the new Georgia Registered Voter Information System (GARViS). Election officials from across Georgia joined Secretary Raffensperger and our partners in the project, MTX, Salesforce, and Transform, to highlight the improvements to Georgia’s voter registration process using this one-of-a-kind technology purpose-built for Georgia.
“GARViS is a tremendous step forward in the security and accuracy of Georgia’s voter registration system,” said Secretary Raffensperger.
GARViS is the product of over 150,000 hours of development, testing, and training efforts culminating in the largest scale, fastest rollout of a top-down, statewide voter registration system in American history. The new system will take Georgia’s voter registration system to the highest standard of security on Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FEDRAMP) servers.
“When people ask us, ‘How do we know who voted? How do we know it’s real? How do we know it’s fair?’ Because we have the receipts we keep on this secure system. That’s how we know,” said Gabriel Sterling, Chief Operating Officer. “Don’t let anybody believe there are dead voters voting or double voting in any significant way, because it’s just not true.”
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Blue Creek Precinct has a new Polling Location
Effective March 15, 2023 the Blue Creek Voting Precinct moved to a new location. The Precinct will continue to be known as "Blue Creek" and Poll Location will change locations to the Social Hall at The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection. The address of the Blue Creek Polling Location will be 1755 Duncan Bridge Rd, Sautee Nacoochee, GA 30571.
The reason for this move is the current voting facilities at the Blue Creek Baptist Church Community Building does not adhere to ADA specifications pursuant to Georgia Code § 21-2-265.
BallotTrax provides notifications when ballots are sent and received
Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the start of the absentee ballot request period (August 22 - Oct 28, 2022) for the General Election in November. He is reminding Georgia voters that they have access to BallotTrax, the online tracking tool that allows voters to monitor the status of their absentee ballots through the United States Postal Service.
Per the Secretary of State website, "Voters who register at BallotTrax will receive up-to-date notifications when their ballot is picked up by the USPS, when it is in transit, when it has been delivered to the election office, and when it has been accepted by county elections officials. Voters can choose to receive updates via text, email or phone. Keeping up with ballots step-by-step as they move through the mail system is designed to keep voters informed and increase voter confidence in the elections process." (Partnership With BallotTrax Adds Confidence and Convenience to Mail Voting | Georgia Secretary of State, 2022)
BallotTrax is available free of charge to all Georgia voters whose requests for absentee ballots have been processed by their counties. BallotTrax will also inform voters if their absentee ballots are rejected, which can occur if their IDs don’t match or voter registration information is missing. Voters can then correct problems.
Absentee ballots will begin to be mailed Oct. 11, as Oct. 10 is a federal holiday, and completed ballots must be received at county election offices before polls close on Election Day on Nov. 8.
Voters planning to vote by mail this year should visit BallotTrax to register and monitor their ballot status.
Flags Donated to Elections and Registration
WoodmenLife Chapter 565 presented flags of the United States and state of Georgia to the White County Elections and Voter Registration office. Thank you, WoodmenLife!
Pictured from left to right:
Michael Barrett (Woodmen), Barbara Thomas (Woodmen), Charlie Thomas (Woodmen Chapter President), Carol Smith (Elections), Frank Edwards (Woodmen), Akyn Bailey (Former Elections Director), Lamerle Edwards (Woodmen Chapter Secretary), Imogene Palmer (Elections), and Sid Crowe (Woodmen)
