Judge won't order immediate switch to hand-marked ballots
Source: Associated Press
KATE BRUMBACK,
Associated Press
Oct. 11, 2020
Updated: Oct. 12, 2020 12:32 a.m.
ATLANTA (AP) A federal judge on Sunday expressed serious concerns about Georgia's new election system but declined to order the state to abandon its touchscreen voting machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots for the November election.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by voting integrity activists that challenges the election system the state bought last year from Dominion Voting Systems for more than $100 million. The activists argued that the system places an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote because voters cannot be confident their vote is accurately counted.
. . .
The activists have shown that equipment and voter registration database problems during pilot elections last year and this year's June primary and August runoff elections caused severe breakdowns at the polls, severely burdening voters exercise of the franchise.
But the judge noted that U.S. Supreme Court precedent recognizes states' authority and power to regulate their elections and the voting process itself and acknowledged that the high court has repeatedly said in recent months that lower courts must use great restraint in ordering any substantial changes so close to an election.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Judge-won-t-order-immediate-switch-to-hand-marked-15638283.php
Judge Amy Totenberg