Georgia election board director asks DOJ to bar QR-code vote counting before midterms

In a letter sent Thursday, 1 October, James Mills, executive director of Georgia's State Election Board, asked US Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, to "prohibit" the state's QR code-based vote counting. 1 Mills also urged federal officials to set a binding six-month deadline for Georgia to switch to a different voting system, 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. 1 Mills argued that "unreadable, unverifiable QR code-based vote tabulation" violates the Help America Vote Act because voters cannot check the vote that is actually counted, and said the system "can be compromised in seconds with an ordinary ballpoint pen, as demonstrated in federal court." 1

The letter followed a resolution passed earlier in the week directing Mills to seek help from the Trump administration; Carolyn Roddy introduced it, and Vice Chair Janelle King and Salleigh Grubbs joined her in passing it, while Chairman John Fervier, Gov. Brian Kemp's appointee, opposed it. 1 Fervier said he has "a fundamental issue with the federal government becoming involved in Georgia elections"; Democracy Docket, cited by Raw Story, noted that the Constitution leaves election administration to state and local officials and that the Justice Department has no legal power to declare voting machines unlawful on its own. 1 Mills copied Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who has separately asked the Justice Department to declare QR code machines unlawful under HAVA. 1

The resolution urges the secretary of state to upgrade voting software to address a ballot-secrecy flaw and other vulnerabilities; the board's lone Democrat, Sara Ghazal, said it was too close to the midterms for an update and opposed federal intervention. 2 According to AP, the flaw, found by researchers in 2022, does not allow votes to be changed or cast doubt on results, but allows ballots to be put back in the order cast, so that with other public data someone could match voters to their ballots. 2 At a Thursday meeting, King and Roddy criticized a separate proposal from the Georgia Republican Party and the RNC to have county officials shuffle ballots at polling sites before they are cast, citing burdens on counties and timing days before early voting starts on 13 October; the board adjourned without voting on it. 2

Election security expert Ben Adida told the board the state had already taken steps to reduce risks and that a software update days before a major election could cause bigger problems. 2