Georgia Republicans sow doubt about Dominion voting machines in 2020 throwback

By Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Just weeks before early voting begins in Georgia, Republican Party officials and Donald Trump allies are trying to preemptively sow doubt about the viability of Dominion systems used across the key swing state, arguing in court that the machines should not be used because they are not safe or secure.

In a replay of 2020 tactics, Republicans have continued to claim without proof that Dominion voting systems were exploited in previous elections, resulting in mass manipulation and vote-flipping by a nefarious actor. And GOP officials in DeKalb County in Georgia, aided by a familiar cast of pro-Trump lawyers, have signaled they are planning to once again question the 2024 election results if Trump loses.

They have sued in state court, arguing the Dominion voting machines are not in compliance with Georgia law and want the Secretary of State’s office to make voting records and ballot images available for public inspection within 24 hours of the election. But the lawsuit is also raising concerns that the DeKalb County GOP officials are attempting to mislead voters so they can explain away a potential loss in November.

Ironically, the plaintiffs are relying in part on data obtained from five Georgia counties after the 2020 election when Trump was fighting Joe Biden’s legitimate win, including an unauthorized breach of Coffee County’s systems that led to criminal charges in the racketeering case against Trump and his allies.

While state election officials have acknowledged no voting system is without vulnerabilities – as shown by the alleged physical breach of Coffee County’s offices – they insist Georgia’s voting equipment is completely secure and there has been no proof of widespread fraud.

The GOP officials who filed the lawsuit argue there is credible evidence that the Dominion systems remain vulnerable to potential manipulation. The lawsuit also theorizes that the systems may have already been exploited, despite offering no proof to support that claim.

Any vulnerabilities to the Dominion system have been largely dismissed by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and state election officers.

The plaintiffs are using the “same tired claims that have been rejected by courts again and again,” Elizabeth Young, who is representing Raffensperger’s office, told Judge Scott McAfee at a court hearing this week to determine whether the lawsuit will move forward and additional evidence can be presented. “There is not much credibility in the claim.”

Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, a nonprofit voting rights organization that has raised concerns about vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting systems as part of a separate lawsuit against state election officials, told CNN there is evidence of security risks.

But at the same time, Marks said she is skeptical about the true intention of the DeKalb County complaint, in part because the action it is seeking from the secretary of state would not address concerns about the vulnerabilities themselves.

“I fear they are just attempting to lay the groundwork for challenging the election based on further exposing the serious weaknesses of the system, demonstrating that the results can be manipulated,” said Marks, who is pushing for Georgia to use hand-marked paper ballots.

In recent days, as the Georgia lawsuit has percolated in the news, people affiliated with Dominion have received new threats, according to sources familiar with the matter. One vulgar email reviewed by CNN referenced some of the same concerns about the integrity of Dominion machines that are also at the heart of the litigation.

Dominion staffers and executives have faced an uptick in death threats and menacing communications since its software was falsely accused by Trump and his allies of rigging the 2020 results.

Proving that existing vulnerabilities, some of which have been acknowledged by federal election officials, have actually been exploited is a critical distinction separating reality from the speculation at the heart of the complaint and others like it – including those that were previously filed after the 2020 election and overwhelmingly failed.

In their complaint, DeKalb County GOP officials allege Georgia’s Dominion’s voting systems violated a security protocol by placing encryption keys on its election systems “in an unprotected state and in plain text within county election systems readable to anyone with licit or illicit access to the system.”

An encryption key is used to encrypt or decrypt information in the transmission and storage of information. But state officials insist the systems have not been hacked.

Voting system data that was obtained during the Coffee County breach and subsequently posted online is cited in the new lawsuit, along with similar information from four other Georgia counties.

According to court filings, GOP officials in Georgia obtained and examined copies of 2020 election databases from Appling County, Bibb County, Jones County, Telfair County and Coffee County – and they allege that the cryptographic encryption keys used to secure those voting systems have been compromised.

While the lawsuit notes that these sensitive election databases were “lawfully obtained via an Open Records Request and have been available on the internet since October 2021,” CNN has previously reported that pro-Trump operatives gained unauthorized access to the voting systems in Coffee County shortly after the 2020 election and considered using that data to try to upend Biden’s legitimate victory at the time.

Multiple individuals, including two former Georgia election officials, still face state-level criminal charges over their alleged roles in the Coffee County breach — which was part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ indictment against Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants in her 2020 election subversion case.

False claims about voting machines in several states are part of special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal prosecution of Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In a filing from Smith on Wednesday, prosecutors pointed to Trump claiming that voting machines had been manipulated despite being told repeatedly by federal officials that the 2020 election was the most secure in US history.

During the hearing earlier this week, Harry MacDougald, a pro-Trump attorney for DeKalb County GOP, called multiple witnesses, none of whom were able to provide specific evidence that vulnerabilities in the Dominion voting systems in Georgia were exploited in previous elections. MacDougald also represents former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who still faces criminal charges in Georgia for his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. (Clark has pleaded not guilty and is not involved in the new lawsuit.)

One witness who testified this week alleged there were “hundreds of vulnerabilities” to the Dominion voting systems but conceded that none were specific to Georgia.

Georgia election officials have maintained the state’s voting systems are secure, in part, because of the layers of protection that exist to monitor for any irregularities.

But the 2021 breach in Coffee County and the fact that Georgia has not yet implemented a widely recommended security update for its Dominion systems have led to continued questions about whether more needs to be done to ensure the accuracy of November’s vote count.

While Georgia election officials say they won’t be able to update the state’s voting systems until after the 2024 election, they also insist it is highly unlikely that any vulnerabilities will be exploited in real attacks.

Those officials also say they have already carried out a number of security recommendations without having to update the system’s software.

“Upgrading the system will be a massive undertaking, and our election officials are evaluating the scope of, and time required for the project,” Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, previously told CNN when asked about the delay.

CNN’s Nick Valencia, Sara Murray, Marshall Cohen and Jason Morris contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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