Ga. voting equipment tested in surprise audit ahead of election

FAYETEVILLE, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - In an effort to assure Georgia voters of the security and accuracy of the presidential election, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and of his office are conducting surprise audits at several of the state’s county election’s offices.

In a process that mimics a mini-election using results from past races, secretary of state team run the electronic voting and tabulating machines as they would be used in a real election. It’s to test for bugs and glitches, which Raffensperger said they found none of in Fayette County during their audit there on Wednesday.

“By doing it with a surprise audit, you’re seeing exactly what the machines are capable of, what they’re doing, recording votes accurately,” he said. “We want to give voters confidence in the process.”

Fayette County wasn’t the first — and certainly won’t be the last — audit before the Nov. 5 presidential election, less than 100 days away.

After claims of fraud roiled states like Georgia in the wake of the 2020 presidential contest, many voters made calls for a switch to paper ballot voting, entirely eliminating machines and QR-code readers from the process.

Raffensperger said to do that, state law would need to be changed.

“State law requires the ballot marking devices, which we use, and then it also requires that we use the electronic scanners,” he said. “What they really want is they want hand counting of all ballots and hand-marked ballots and that is not what is, right now, established in state law.”

In Georgia, a form of identification is required to vote in all cases whether people do it in person, absentee for any reason, or during the state’s 17-day early voting period. It’s not too late to for the election in November, and if you’re moving between now and then, the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office is now putting that ability in the hands of voters.

A new cancellation webpage is now allowing voters to cancel their own registration. Whereas before, voters had to mail in a physical copy of a registration cancellation, now, they can do it from the comfort of their homes. Raffensperger said it’s another step in keeping Georgia’s voter rolls clean, and people’s information protected.

“By doing this online portal, you don’t have to actually mail in a cancellation notice, which actually puts your private information out there, that anyone could perhaps intercept your mail,” he said.

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