In a warehouse in Bartow County, Georgia, election director Joseph Kirk stands in the middle of a long aisle of voting machines and starts performing his checks.
It’s Tuesday, with only a week to go until the start of early voting. This year one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats and all statewide offices are up for grabs. But before voters start casting their ballots, election officials across the state must conduct a sort of dress rehearsal, known as logic and accuracy testing, to ensure that all equipment is working properly.
Kirk, who is also the past president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, said the routine testing procedure involves every piece of equipment and every procedure used during the voting process.
“We want to be sure that if there is a problem with how [the system] is collecting results, then we see that as part of the test, not afterwards as part of an audience,” Kirk said.
Common problems include screen malfunctions and other maintenance issues. But Kirk said during his time as election director, any discrepancy in tallying ballots they found during the testing have been the result of human error, not problems with the machines.
In addition to ensuring that voters have a smooth experience at the polls, Kirk said the process can help build trust in Georgia’s election system. Under state law, county administrators must publicly post the dates and times that testing will take place, and the public is invited to come and observe election workers while they perform the checks.
This is also likely the last major election to be conducted primarily on Georgia’s ballot-marking devices, which have been in place since 2020 and use a QR code to tally votes. The equipment has long faced criticism from activists who claim machines are less secure than paper ballots marked by hand, and state lawmakers are currently in the early stages of selecting Georgia’s next voting system.
Marilyn Marks, executive director of the advocacy group Coalition for Good Governance, has spent years speaking out against the machines and has repeatedly urged Georgia’s State Election Board to implement a switch to hand-marked ballots before the midterm elections. She worries that existing procedures don’t go far enough to protect voters against machines if they are tampered with.
“It is essential testing, don’t get me wrong; it is really necessary, but it can only catch a small number of issues,” she said. “It was never set up to be security testing to try to catch malware or anything. It is really just functional testing.”
But amid all her concerns about Georgia’s ballot-marking devices, she said recent actions from the State Election Board worry her more. Last week, the board’s executive director sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting federal “intervention” ahead of the midterms.
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
Marks called the letter a “blank check,” to the Department of Justice and said she worries officials could be sent to monitor polling places or even seize voting machines.
“It is a license for chaos, and that is exactly what those board members were trying to do,” she said.
Congressional Democrats — including Georgia Reps. Sanford Bishop, Everton Blair, Hank Johnson and Nikema Williams — have also condemned Mills’ letter, labeling his actions “a clear attempt to sow public mistrust in the security of American elections.” They have also called on the State Election Board to publicly reassure Georgia residents that the state’s voting machines are secure and meet all federal requirements.
“Public confidence in elections depends in substantial part upon public officials communicating accurately, responsibly, and within the scope of their statutory authority — and without incompetently, or intentionally, mischaracterizing the law,” the letter states.
But those who are working on the ground to get voters out to the polls say there isn’t a clear consensus yet on how the State Election Board’s actions will impact voter turnout. Carmen Bergman of Greater Georgia, a group focused on registering and turning out conservative-leaning voters, said most Georgians she talked to were more concerned about issues like affordability and public safety than they were about election security.
“Among a group of election-focused individuals, yes, it is still very much on their minds,” Bergman said. “But any voter wants to feel confident that when they show up and cast their ballot, that it’s going to count and that it’s going to be cast securely.”
Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of the left-leaning voting rights organization Fair Fight Action, also said she doesn’t think the State Election Board’s actions are influencing most voters. However, she said concerns about the reliability of absentee voting are having a tangible effect this year. According to the secretary of state’s office, only about 116,000 voters submitted absentee ballot requests this year, significantly fewer than the 285,000 voters who requested mail ballots during the last midterm elections in 2022.
“I think we are seeing real impacts of the lies and propaganda around issues with mail voting,” she said.
At this point, she added, her organization is focused on ensuring that voters have the information they need to cast their ballots.
“There’s fear mongering and voter suppression attempts going on to try to raise doubt, sow fear, sow distrust, so people stay home,” she said. “But the bottom line is, if our vote wasn’t powerful, they wouldn’t be wasting their time with all of these antics.”
Early voting for the midterm begins on Oct. 13. Voters can check their registration status, sample ballot and polling locations online through the secretary of state’s My Voter Page.
