National, state Republican proposal for equipment flaw doesn’t get a vote

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – The proposed fix to Georgia’s voting equipment is criticized and won’t be accepted by two Republicans on the state election board, even though it came from their party.

At issue is the potential for violation of ballot secrecy.

Janelle King and Carolyn Roddy, two of four Republicans on the five-member panel, respectively objected to new burdens at the county level and the timing just days before early voting begins. Also, Roddy doesn’t believe the software problem is resolved.

Printed ballots and electronic ballot images can be reordered into the sequence they were cast. Coupled with public data available, there is potential for specific ballots to be matched to voters.

The board on Thursday did not take a vote on the proposal by the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party. They asked the state board to mandate county officials collecting and shuffling ballots at polling sites to break the sequence.

Democrat Sara Ghazal of the state board said the election is too close for a software update.