Will Jon Ossoff turn a Republican district blue by winning 50% or more of the votes in this Congressional race? Or will he have to face a run-off that consolidates the Republican vote against him? Will the race be an indicator that Democrats can flip the House in 2018? Or another nail in their coffin showing how out of touch with electoral politics they have really become - and that they can no longer motivate Black voters, even with Robocalls from Samuel Jackson.
Do not be bothered by the fact that some voting machines were stolen. The Election Director assures us that the data "is hard to access."
"Cobb County Elections Director Janine Eveler said information on the machines is “hard to access,” adding that they cannot be used to fraudulently vote in Tuesday’s election."
I personally feel so much better knowing that - because data being hard to access always deters hackers.
Meanwhile the NY Times lays out what to watch for, without ever bothering to mention that Georgia votes on completely electronic voting machines with no paper trail - so there is literally no way to check if the votes are accurate.
This Letter to the Editor by Richard DeMillo, Charlotte B. and Roger C. Warren Professor of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, also points out that the organization responsible for Georgia's elections is under investigation by the FBI after a security breach last week.
"A special department at Kennesaw State University, under contract to the Secretary of State’s office, maintains and programs the machines, along with the electronic poll books, for the entire state for each election. While details are still unclear, the FBI launched a criminal investigation last week after the KSU department was breached. Even if the voting systems were not harmed by the breach, the technology of the machines is insecure, making them susceptible to malfunction and error. With no paper trail, there is no way to validate the outcome of an election independently."
As Mr. DeMillo points out,
"Georgia should conduct all future elections using voter-marked paper ballots. These can be counted by ballot scanners and, most importantly, audited by hand. To ensure confidence, Georgia voters deserve a secure auditable system, such as is used by most of the rest of the country, and a strong manual post-election ballot audit law."