CNN —
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by Georgia Republican officials that questioned the security of voting machines used across the state in the upcoming 2024 election.
Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee said in a ruling issued Friday that the device remains certified and that the implications of any potential security risks are “purely hypothetical at this time.”
The failed lawsuit, filed weeks before early voting began in Georgia, by DeKalb County Republican officials and familiar pro-Trump lawyers alleges that Dominion’s voting machines do not comply with Georgia law. insisted. Officials called on the Secretary of State’s office to make voting records and images of ballots available for public viewing within 24 hours after the election.
But McAfee said the relief sought by Republican officials did not address the vulnerability and the issue should be decided by policymakers, not courts.
State officials, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), maintain that voting equipment is secure and there is no evidence of widespread fraud. Officials said the lawsuit is an attempt to mislead voters and pave the way for Donald Trump to once again cast doubt on the 2024 election results if he loses.
Republicans continue to claim, without evidence, that Dominion’s voting systems were abused in past elections, resulting in massive manipulation and vote flipping by thugs.
Proving that existing vulnerabilities, some of which have been acknowledged by federal election officials, were exploited is an important distinction between reality and the speculation at the heart of the accusations.
At a hearing earlier this week, pro-Trump attorney Harry McDougald of the DeKalb County Republican Party called several witnesses who provided concrete evidence that vulnerabilities in Georgia’s Dominion voting system had been exploited in past elections. No one showed that. McDougald is also representing former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who remains facing criminal charges in Georgia for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results. (Clark has maintained his innocence and is not involved in the new lawsuit.)
One witness testifying this week claimed there were “hundreds of vulnerabilities” in Dominion’s voting system, but acknowledged that none were unique to Georgia.
Georgia election officials have maintained that the state’s voting system is secure because of the layers of protection that exist to monitor fraud.
The fact that Georgia has not yet implemented widely recommended security updates to Dominion systems raises questions about whether more needs to be done to ensure the accuracy of November’s vote counts. Questions continue to arise.
Georgia election officials say they won’t be able to update the state’s voting system until after the 2024 election, but they also maintain that the chances of exploiting the vulnerability in a real attack are extremely low.
These officials also said they have already implemented many security recommendations without updating the software on their systems.
