Georgia's voting system is once again under scrutiny, this time by election cybersecurity experts, which could set the state up for a repeat situation of 2020 election fraud claims.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was at the center of the 2020 Georgia election scandal, dismissed claims made by security expert Alex Halderman in a letter to the Georgia General Assembly on Tuesday.
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In an audit, Halderman determined that there are dangerous vulnerabilities in the voting machine software used widely throughout the state. However, Raffensperger argues that Halderman's findings are overblown and no fixes are required.
"Georgia’s election system is secure. It’s been battle-tested through two general elections, subjected to repeated audits and intense public scrutiny, and come through with flying colors," Raffensperger said.
"Every single piece of voting equipment across Georgia will undergo security health checks ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, including verification no software has been tampered with."
Raffensperger said the audit of the state's Dominion Voting Systems' ImageCastX ballot-marking services came from a three-month survey in a "laboratory environment."
He said Halderman's identified risks were "theoretical and imaginary."
“It’s more likely that I could win the lottery without buying a ticket” than that fraudsters flip enough votes to swing the election, he said in the letter.
Now the secretary of state's comments are the subject of controversy, as cybersecurity specialists say he is lumping legitimate research with conspiracy theorists, which could be damaging for the 2024 election cycle.
"Raffensperger has lumped us with the election deniers,” David Jefferson, a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and an expert on election technology, said to Politico.
“But we cannot, out of fear of that confusion, stop talking about these vulnerabilities. They are real, they are there, and they must be addressed.”
Raffensperger compared Halderman's report to "critics of Georgia's election security," such as "election-denying conspiracy theorists" and litigants in Curling vs Raffensperger. The lawsuit stemmed from the 2020 election after voters claimed the voting systems were dysfunctional and impeded voters' ability to cast a ballot.
They have argued for hand-marked paper ballots, as the machine-printed ballots are counted using barcodes that voters cannot corroborate with their own eyes. Georgia has maintained that the voting system has adequate controls to prevent any fraud.
However, the arguments between security experts and state officials set up a potential battle for the legitimacy of the vote in the 2024 presidential election. The state is still reeling from the last presidential election, where Raffensperger had to fight off former President Donald Trump and his high-profile allies.
The Fulton County District Attorney's office is reportedly close to handing down charges related to Trump and his allies' attempts to interfere in Georgia's 2020 general election. A phone call between Trump and Raffensperger showed that the former president asked Raffensperger to "find" enough votes that would secure Trump the presidency against President Joe Biden.
Raffensperger, who pushed back against Trump and refused to pause certification of the votes, said in his letter that Georgia has effective controls in place for the voting system, just like it did in 2020 when multiple audits disproved allegations of widespread fraud.
Several cybersecurity analysts and election security experts argue that there’s enough time to make changes and that fixing a documented issue with the machines is the best way to prevent vote-tampering or disinformation in 2024.
Overall, Halderman’s audit discovered nine vulnerabilities in Dominion’s software, the United State government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, confirmed. The agency first reviewed the report under seal and then warned publicly about the nine flaws in June 2022.
Each of Halderman's predicted attacks would require, to some degree, physical access to the election ballot systems. Fraudsters would also need a copy of the program's software, which would be hard to obtain and even harder to decipher.
One of the biggest concerns raised by Halderman is that by altering both the barcode and the text that lists a voter’s choice, hackers could undermine confidence in efforts to verify election results. Even if voters were able to catch a mistake, it could cause widespread confusion on Election Day, the audit determined.
A Dominion spokesperson said, “Our customers’ certified systems remain secure thanks in part to the many robust operational and procedural safeguards that exist to protect elections." The comment came in response to being asked about Halderman's findings.
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Regardless, Halderman said Raffensperger's actions are "the height of irresponsibility."
"Even if there’s no actual attack, you better believe that there are people who are going to use the existence of these problems to call into question the results of elections," Halderman said in an interview with Politico.