Georgia’s Republican-controlled State Election Board is asking the Justice Department to declare the state’s voting machines illegal ahead of the midterms.
In a letter sent Thursday, board Executive Director James Mills asked Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the DOJ Civil Rights Division, to “prohibit” the state’s QR code-based vote counting. Mills also urged federal officials to “set a binding six-month deadline” for Georgia to switch to a different voting system.
The letter takes aim at the ballot-marking devices Georgia voters use to make their picks, which turn those selections into QR codes that scanners later read. Mills argued that “unreadable, unverifiable QR code-based vote tabulation” runs afoul of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) because voters can’t check the vote that actually gets counted.
Mills went further, pressing the Justice Department to force a statewide software update before November and to investigate the secretary of state’s office over allegations that it withheld or altered election records. He also claimed the system “can be compromised in seconds with an ordinary ballpoint pen, as demonstrated in federal court.”
The letter follows a resolution three board members approved earlier this week directing Mills to seek help from the Trump administration. Member Carolyn Roddy, the Republican Party’s appointee, introduced the measure, and Vice Chair Janelle King and member Salleigh Grubbs joined her in passing it, Democracy Docket reported.
Grubbs backed the resolution despite calling herself “a strict constitutionalist” who opposes federal involvement in state election matters, according to Democracy Docket.
Board Chairman John Fervier, Gov. Brian Kemp’s appointee, opposed it.
“I have a fundamental issue with the federal government becoming involved in Georgia elections,” Fervier said. “I just fundamentally disagree with it.”
The Constitution leaves election administration to state and local officials, and the Justice Department has no legal power to declare voting machines unlawful or seize them on its own, Democracy Docket noted.
Mills copied Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on the letter. Mullin has separately asked the Justice Department to declare QR code machines unlawful under HAVA.
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