Court gavel. MWC file photo.
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – A U.S. federal judge ruled in favor of a landmark lawsuit in the state of Georgia that alleges that voting machines can be hacked or manipulated via cyberattacks and other criminal activity.
According to the Post Millennial, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg, who was appointed to her position by former President Obama, addressed the case last Friday that seeks to replace Georgia’s computerized voting machines with paper ballots. She stated in a decision footnote that the evidence in the case “does not suggest that the plaintiffs are conspiracy theorists of any variety.”
“Indeed, some of the nation’s leading cybersecurity experts and computer scientists have provided testimony and affidavits on behalf of the plaintiffs’ case in the long course of this litigation,” Judge Totenberg added.
The Coalition for Good Governance, an advocacy group for election security, and individual voters filed the lawsuit, which alleges that several security flaws in these voting machines violate voters’ constitutional rights to cast ballots and have them reliably counted.
Totenberg further stated in her decision that while the “court cannot wave a magic wand, in this case, to address the varied challenges to our democracy and election system in recent years, including those presented in this case,” a “reasonable, timely discussion and compromise in this case, coupled with prompt, informed legislative action, might certainly make a difference that benefits the parties and the public.”
This lawsuit is the first to establish the needed legal precedence to bring similar lawsuits in other swing states, such as Wisconsin, where claims of election interference by members of both parties have been made since the 2020 general election, including issues with voting machines and unfair voting maps. Neither party in the state has been able to legally prove their claims of interference in court over the last three years.
According to Fox News, earlier this month, the Wisconsin Senate also approved three proposed modifications to the state constitution that would address concerns regarding the management of elections following attempts to remove WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe from her position.
The proposed amendments would make it illegal for businesses such as Mark Zuckerberg’s META to provide funds for election management, codify current voter picture ID laws into the state constitution, and restrict voting rights in municipal and state elections to only U.S. residents. Gov. Tony Evers cannot veto constitutional amendments, which must be adopted by two consecutive sessions of the Legislature before being decided by voters in a statewide election.
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