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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, JUNE 16
KELLY LOEFFLER CALLS ON ELECTION OFFICIALS TO
IMPLEMENT EMERGENCY VOTING MACHINE FIX AHEAD OF 2024
ATLANTA – Today, former U.S. Senator and Greater Georgia Chairwoman Kelly Loeffler called on the Georgia Secretary of State and the State Election Board to take emergency action to fix a long-existing software vulnerability in Georgia’s voting machines ahead of the 2024 election.
According to court documents that were unsealed by a federal judge earlier this week, the Secretary of State has known about the state’s voting machine vulnerabilities since at least July 2021 - when the University of Michigan conducted a twelve-week audit on the machines. After reviewing their report, the Department of Homeland Security also investigated the machines - and finding substantial threats, issued a security advisory that urged states to fix the vulnerabilities “as soon as possible.” Though a software update is available for the machines, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office announced last month that it was refusing to install the patch until after the 2024 election cycle.
“It’s unacceptable that our state’s top elections official has failed to address known vulnerabilities in our voting machines for two years. But it’s incomprehensible that he has now announced, to every criminal and malign foreign actor, that the security flaws will not be fixed for another two years,” said Loeffler. “Election integrity requires secure election infrastructure, and like any technology - election infrastructure requires routine updates. The Secretary of State and State Election Board must take emergency action to implement the available software patch on Georgia’s voting equipment and complete testing before the 2024 primary, to secure the vote and restore the confidence of every Georgia voter.”
The 2021 investigation, which found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020, nonetheless discovered “vulnerabilities in nearly every part of the system,” and concluded that “no grand conspiracies would be necessary to commit large-scale fraud, but rather only moderate technical skills.”
The Georgia Secretary of State has dismissed those urging for a software update as “election deniers,” claiming: “the procedural safeguards we have in place mitigate these hypothetical scenarios from happening. It’s extremely unlikely that any bad actor would be able to exploit our voting systems in the real world.”
Last week, state investigators seized an election server in Treutlen County over concerns it had been tampered with in 2021. Last month, meanwhile, thieves broke into a DeKalb County warehouse and stole more than a dozen pieces of election equipment.
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