Georgia Secretary of State gives Chatham County elections clean bill of health

The Chatham County Board of Elections underwent an election systems health check Monday, and the state’s top elections official was on site for the event.

Election systems health checks will be conducted in each of Georgia’s 159 counties in the run up to this year’s presidential election on Nov. 5. The health checks were a plan instituted by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who visited Savannah Monday.

After the health check at the BOE, Raffensperger took to the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce for a press briefing on his office’s efforts to boost confidence in the state’s election systems. The secretary delivered his remarks to a room of about 20 community leaders.

“We want to make sure that this is a peaceful election, that it is quiet,” Raffensperger told the group.

The local election systems health checks focus on the electronic security of the technology on site, although the Department of Homeland Security does its own checks of the building’s physical security, Raffensperger said.

The check entails scanning ballots and making sure those scanners record information properly. Raffensperger said Chatham County passed the test.

“Everything is working according to how it should be,” Raffensperger said in an interview. “The machines are still accurately recording the votes.”

Some of the election security measures Raffensperger mentioned included implementation of the new GARViS voter registration system, which he said is “tailor made” for Georgia and replaces an old system.

The SOS office has also increased encryption levels for people’s personally identifying information. Other efforts to boost confidence in the elections are a set of six “security convenings” where the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DHS and local law enforcement gather to talk about election security issues, Raffensperger said. Those convenings will continue.

“We understand that security is really important, and that’s really our job every day,” Raffensperger said.

Raffensperger also provided an update to the presidential ballot now that President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race. There is no impact to the ballot in Georgia, because the SOS office does not complete ballots until both parties have chosen a nominee.

The Democratic National Convention is slated for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. There, delegates will select their nomination for both President and Vice President. Raffensperger said ballot preparation starts that month.

“We’ll be in good shape, and it’s a big process,” Raffensperger said.

Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.