PETITION to GEORGIA STATE ELECTION BOARD for BETTER 2020 ELECTIONS

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2019


CONTACT:
Coalition for Good Governance
Marilyn Marks, Executive Director
704 292 9802, [e-mail]


(ATLANTA, GA.) A group of politically diverse organizations has petitioned the State Election Board to adopt a set of four new rules for implementation in 2020 to improve the voting experience and election security for all voters. The group is employing a little-known provision of Georgia’s Election Code that permits interested persons to propose election rules to the State Election Board for consideration at the next Board meeting, which is scheduled for December 17, 2019.

The growing group of petitioners includes Coalition for Good Governance, the Libertarian Party of Georgia, the Constitution Party of Georgia, both the Morgan and Newton County Democratic Committees, and Georgia Advancing Progress PAC, demonstrating the wide political, as well as non-partisan, spectrum of support for more secure elections that reliably reflect voters’ decisions.

The group was motivated to seek election rules to help mitigate anticipated 2020 election difficulties because of problems exposed during the pilot of the new Dominion voting system in selected November elections; the system’s debugging and implementation risks; newly identified security risks; delayed equipment delivery; the massive training and logistics required before the March Presidential Primaries; and the large, unfunded cost burden of the new system to the public and counties.

Given the highly vulnerable nature of the new electronic pollbooks as experienced during the pilots, and the resulting perils of long lines and confusion, two of the proposed rules are aimed directly at avoiding likely long waits to vote:

· Mail Ballots Returned at Polling Places. Allows voters to have their mail-in absentee ballots accepted at early voting locations and at their precinct on Election Day, eliminating the risks of mail delivery or ballot rejection for minor discrepancies. (Proposed Rule 1)

· Paper PollBook Back-ups. Requires an updated printed pollbook in all precincts on Election Day, to be used in case of electronic pollbook discrepancies or malfunction. This reduces unnecessary provisional ballot issuance and polling place confusion from errors in e-pollbooks. (Proposed Rule 3)

The new voting system uses an oversized touchscreen with large fonts, which displays the voter’s choices in a manner that permits poll workers, other voters, and poll watchers to discern how a voter is voting. The improper loss of ballot secrecy must be immediately remedied:

· Protecting Ballot Secrecy. Affirms the voters’ rights to an absolutely secret ballot by protecting ballot secrecy while allowing public observation. (Proposed Rule 2)

Lastly, equipment failures during the November pilots, extensive training requirements, and delays delivering new equipment to counties are reducing confidence that the new Dominion system will be debugged, installed and fully ready for statewide use during the March Presidential Preference Primary. Petitioners are asking the State Election Board to adopt a flexible rule:

· Allowing an incremental voting system conversion. Would permit each county to choose the extent of system conversion that they could meet with confidence rather than requiring a complete immediate conversion to the numerous components required by the fully implemented Dominion BMD system,[1] thereby ensuring an orderly transition. This would also give counties time to find the resources needed to support the conversion, an activity that is becoming increasingly important as more details come out regarding the large unfunded cost burden to the public and counties. (Rule 4)
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Petition may be signed here (Georgia residency not required)

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