Federal judge dismisses lawsuit that challenged Georgia’s electronic voting machine system
Kim Kulish via Getty Images
The judge dismissed a 2017 lawsuit challenging security threats of Georgia's electronic voting machines used in statewide elections since 2020.
This story was originally published by Georgia Recorder.
A federal judge has dismissed a long-running lawsuit challenging the security of Georgia’s electronic voting machines even though the judge maintained substantial concerns about the system.
According to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg’s ruling issued Monday, the plaintiffs in Curling v. Raffensperger were not able to demonstrate that the state’s electronic voting system disenfranchises them from exercising their right to vote in elections.
She wrote that the election activists Coalition for Good Governance and Georgia voters lacked standing in the lawsuit.
Totenberg also wrote that some of the plaintiffs’ legal objections to the touchscreen ballot marking devices are more about policy disagreements rather than constitutional violations.
Totenberg, however, wrote that she has substantial concerns about the electronic voting technology that has long faced allegations about the risks of being hacked and potentially compromising elections in Georgia.
The state’s electronic Dominion Voting Systems machines were rolled out statewide in 2019, but by that time the state was already involved in the pre-emptive federal court legal battle with the Coalition for Good Governance and other individual plaintiffs who claim that the electronic system is vulnerable to cyber attacks and operational problems that violate voters’ constitutional rights.
Totenberg credited the plaintiffs’ role in providing evidence that exposed a major breach of election equipment in Coffee County following the 2020 election.
Also, she cited a report by a University of Michigan expert on cyber security that detailed the potential threats to ballot marking devices, as well as the possibility that future elections could be compromised by unauthorized access to voter data.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger applauded Totenberg’s ruling in the District Court for Northern District of Georgia case. Raffensperger has long defended the security of Dominion voting machines, arguing that there is no evidence of fraud affecting Georgia’s 2020 and 2024 presidential election results.
“Today’s ruling is just one more resounding vindication of Georgia’s elections,” Raffensperger said. “From day one, we knew these accusations were meritless. All the real-world evidence shows that Georgia’s paper ballot system works well. Our local election officials are professionals. And the voters of this state know that their votes are counted securely, accurately, and quickly.”
Paper ballots movement
The Coalition for Good Governance has long argued that Georgia elections should use hand-marked ballots, claiming that method is the safest way to vote.
The debate over electronic voting machines versus paper ballots was the focus of conspiracy theorists who blamed Dominion’s system for Republican President Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020. Conspiracies about the Dominion machines swirled after Fox News settled a lawsuit with the voting machine maker over the network’s false reports about the system’s reliability.
Over the last couple of years, a prominent pro-paper ballot movement has been led by VoterGa, a largely pro-Trump faction that has urged people to request that state officials get rid of the electronic voting system.
Totenberg wrote Monday that the case has led to some Georgia legislative action that assuaged some of her concerns, such as the Dominion machines relying on use of QR codes for counting votes on paper ballots, a practice that has been criticized by ballot security advocates.
Last year the Georgia Legislature approved Senate Bill 189, which calls for replacing the QR code by July 1, 2026, with a new method of either readable text or a bubble style mark similar to what is currently used for absentee and provisional ballots.
Next year, the paper ballot movement could gain traction in the Legislature through Senate Bill 214, which would allow Georgia voters to cast a hand-marked paper ballot at polling places during early voting and on Election Day. The measure, which was approved last week by a Senate Ethics Committee, would give voters the ability to cast their votes in polling places using pen or pencils, which can now be used to complete absentee ballots. This year is the first in a two-year cycle and bills that don’t pass this year will be alive in 2026.
“Although the plaintiffs have not prevailed in this court of law, their advocacy has helped spark real legislative action,” Totenberg wrote.
“If (SB 189) legislative measures are ultimately funded and implemented, they are the type of legislative action that bolster public confidence in the management of Georgia’s voting system,” Totenberg wrote. “Through litigation and other means, plaintiffs no doubt played a part in prompting these changes.”
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.