Dominion 2019 and Beyond
In 2019, against the advice of IT experts and demands of the public, the Georgia Secretary of State chose Dominion Image Cast ICX for our next election system. There is no assurance that this system will be any more secure than our former Diebold DRE system, especially in view of recent revelations of the extent of incompetence managing our elections over the past eighteen years.
This Dominion system uses paper printouts that do not fit the traditional definition of ballots; rather they are summary lists with QR codes that are used for tabulation. Nobody can explain why barcodes are needed for the voting process. Voters cannot know if their selections are either recorded or counted correctly; they are difficult to read, with small, cramped font; and verification relies on sophisticated cognitive skills. More than half of voters do not take adequate time to verify the lists. Audits are not authentic if they are based on bad information. Voter chain of custody is completely broken. IT election experts recommend hand-marked paper ballots for security and auditability. Voters should not be required to verify if a computer recorded their votes correctly--which isn't guaranteed anyway because of the barcodes. Among the many flaws with the new Dominion BMD system are the size, angle and brightness of the touch screens. Visible from 30' away, it is impossible for many Georgia voters to keep their selections private, which violates the "absolute secrecy" mandated by law. Very few polling stations are large enough and close enough to electrical outlets to enable the recommended setups. Perhaps worst of all is the propensity for software problems. Only weeks before the November 3, 2020 election, a problem was discovered in the software during logic and accuracy testing. With no reasonable amount of time to correct the problem, Dominion employees rushed through with creating and installing new software, contrary to Georgia code. The software is proprietary, and therefore not available for public oversight. After 18 years of unaccountable electons, Georgia voters are again being forced to use a system that is riggable, hackable, flawed, and lacking the transparency that is expected in a democracy. Click here for a discussion of the Dominion scanning ballot. By Susan McWethy for truthout.org Dec 17, 2019
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