Georgia Poised to Pick Vulnerable Barcode Voting Technology

The state of Georgia, still reeling from reports of multiple election security breaches over the past two years, has moved one perilous step closer to replacing its 16-year-old F-rated touchscreen voting machines with yet another glaringly vulnerable touchscreen voting system. Ignoring the advice of independent cybersecurity experts, Georgia’s Secure, Accessible & Fair Elections (SAFE) Commission on Thursday recommended that the state purchase controversial new touchscreen ballot-marking devices that use barcodes to capture and count voters’ selections. The touchscreen system that the commission recommended generates paper printouts with barcodes that are supposed to encapsulate voters’ selections. These barcodes, which humans can’t read, are the only portion of the paper printouts counted by the scanners.