ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia State Election Board held a gathering Wednesday meant to reassure board members and most people that the state’s elections stay safe following the revelation of a breach of voting gear in a single county.

The assembly included a presentation on state election legislation, a proof of how the state’s voting machines work and an outline of post-election audits. It additionally included a report on the breach of voting gear in rural Espresso County.

“I believe what occurred in Espresso County was despicable,” board Chairman William Duffey, a retired federal choose, stated after the assembly. If the investigation finds proof of crimes, the penalties must be vital “to let individuals there and in different counties know that we aren’t going to place up with that,” he stated.

Whereas acknowledging the intense considerations raised by that breach, the board members stated they continue to be assured within the state’s election system.

Sara Tindall Ghazal, the state Democratic Social gathering’s appointee to the board, stated elections must steadiness three “sometimes-competing pursuits” — safety, accessibility and environment friendly administration.

“Georgia’s system displays an try and steadiness these points and pursuits,” she stated. “I’ve belief in our election officers and in our voters to make sure that our elections will proceed easily and securely and that the result will mirror the need of the voters.”

A pc forensics group employed by allies of then-President Donald Trump traveled to the elections workplace in Espresso County, about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, on Jan. 7, 2021, and made full copies of information and software program on elections gear, in accordance with paperwork and deposition testimony produced in response to subpoenas in a long-running lawsuit difficult the safety of the state’s voting machines. Safety digital camera video from the elections workplace exhibits that native Republican Social gathering and county election officers have been current when the copying passed off.

The video additionally exhibits that two males who’ve participated in efforts to query the outcomes of the 2020 election in a number of states repeatedly visited the Espresso County elections workplace later that month, spending hours inside.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the secretary of state’s workplace are trying into the breach. Since comparable exercise has occurred in different states, the FBI has additionally been contacted, Duffey stated. An Atlanta-based prosecutor trying into makes an attempt by Trump to overturn his loss within the state can also be looking for to query individuals concerned.

A gaggle of laptop and election safety consultants earlier this month despatched a letter to the State Election Board saying the breach poses “severe threats” to the state’s voting system. The consultants embody lecturers and former state election officers who aren’t related to efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election. They urged the board to exchange the state’s Dominion Voting Methods touchscreen voting machines with hand-marked paper ballots.

Throughout a presentation on state election legislation, Republican election board member Matt Mashburn stated the board can solely mandate such an emergency measure in circumstances of “imminent peril to public well being, security, or welfare.”

The ballots printed by Georgia’s voting machines embody a QR code — a barcode that’s learn and tabulated by a scanner — and a human-readable record representing the voter’s choices.

Dominion CEO John Poulos appeared by videoconference and described how the voting system works. He highlighted numerous safety measures, together with encryption, passwords, scanned backups of paper ballots, bodily seals and testing publicly earlier than elections. He stated it’s essential for voters to confirm that the record on the poll displays their choices.

Blake Evans, elections director for the secretary of state’s workplace, walked board members by the method for the audits that Georgia now makes use of to test one statewide race throughout even-year common elections. The “risk-limiting audits” depend on statistics, arithmetic and a hand rely of a pattern of ballots to make sure that the machine-tabulated result’s correct.

Critics of the voting machines have stated research present voters hardly ever test their ballots. They are saying meaning there’s no assure the ballots precisely mirror voter intent, making any audit meaningless.

College of Michigan laptop science professor J. Alex Halderman, an professional witness within the voting machines lawsuit that uncovered the breach in Espresso County, recognized what he says are safety vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting machines. The Division of Homeland Safety’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company in June issued an advisory based mostly on Halderman’s findings that features measures to mitigate the dangers.

Dominion commissioned its personal overview of Halderman’s findings by the MITRE Company. An govt abstract of that report deems the potential assaults recognized “operationally infeasible.”

The Halderman and MITRE stories have been filed underneath seal in federal courtroom. The election board unanimously endorsed a movement to induce the choose overseeing the case to launch the stories with essential redactions. Board member Ed Lindsey, a former Republican state lawmaker, stated that will enable the general public to “consider and have faith in our election system.”

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