Petition for HAND-MARKED and HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS in Georgia Elections

We the undersigned, respectfully petition Governor Brian Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Speaker of the House Jon Burns, and all Members of the Georgia General Assembly (House of Representatives & Senate) to convene a special session for the purpose of passing legislation to immediately require the use of secure hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots in every Georgia election, followed by a mandatory and vigorous post-election audit process to verify results.

Recent developments make it clear that Georgia’s Dominion voting machines have numerous vulnerabilities, resulting in elections that are not secure.

A newly unsealed expert report, the Halderman Report, exposes the vulnerabilities and security risks in Georgia’s Dominion voting machines. The report has been under seal by Federal Judge Amy Totenberg for almost 2 years and was unsealed last week. Written by election security expert J. Alex Halderman, the report exposes the machines, claiming they are vulnerable to hacking and vote switching.

In 2022, CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency published an advisory based on Halderman’s report identifying vulnerabilities in Georgia’s Dominion voting machines, and based on those findings, the advisory urged election officials to take steps to mitigate the risks “as soon as possible.”

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been aware of the vulnerabilities with the Dominion voting machines for two years and has refused to apply the Dominion software patch to update and address the vulnerabilities. His office recently told a Federal Court that he has no plans to apply the security update until after the 2024 Presidential Election.

Halderman called the revelation that Raffensperger won’t install the software upgrade until 2025 “stunning.” He warned that delaying the security patch update is “worse than doing nothing,”

Raffensperger’s announcement that he will not update the Dominion machines until 2025, signals to potential adversaries they have almost 18 months to exploit the vulnerabilities and flaws, allowing time to plan and execute attacks during the 2024 election.

Secretary of State Raffensperger has already left the machines in a vulnerable and compromised state for a couple of years. Now he is willingly admitting that he will not take action to secure the machines leading up to a Presidential Election. This decision is irresponsible, reprehensible, and a severe dereliction of duty.

Georgia voters have lost trust in our elections and if Dominion voting machines are used, voters cannot be confident our elections are secure.

Secure elections require secure, watermarked, hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots in every election, followed by mandatory and vigorous post-election audit to verify results.

The mandatory audit process will help rebuild Georgian’s confidence in the election system with the assurance that the election results are secure and reflect the will of the people.

To restore faith and trust in our elections, the Georgia Legislature must immediately convene a special session to change the Official Code of Georgia, requiring all voting on secure, watermarked, hand-marked and hand-counted paper ballots in every election, followed by mandatory and vigorous post-election audit to verify results.