GOP-controlled Georgia election board asks DOJ to declare state’s voting machines illegal

Georgia’s Republican-controlled election board invited the Department of Justice (DOJ) Thursday to declare the state’s voting system unlawful before the upcoming midterm elections.

In a letter Thursday, State Election Board (SEB) Executive Director James Mills (R) asked the DOJ to “prohibit” the state’s use of voting machines previously certified by the federal government.

Mills also asked the DOJ to “set a binding six-month deadline” to force the state to phase out machines that he asked it to deem illegal.

The request is an extraordinary assault on Georgia’s voting system by unelected officials appointed to make and enforce the state’s election rules. It was also sent despite several SEB members — including the chairman — denouncing federal involvement in state election procedures.

The DOJ lacks the legal authority to declare voting machines unlawful or unilaterally seize voting equipment, as the U.S. Constitution gives state and local officials the power to administer elections.

However, the letter comes after President Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to exert greater control over state election procedures, including what machines can be used to cast ballots. In particular, election deniers have repeatedly attacked Georgia’s voting machines since Trump’s loss in the state in the 2020 presidential election.

Mills’ letter concerns Georgia electronic ballot-marking devices, which voters use to make their selections. Those selections are then encoded in QR codes that are later scanned by tabulators during the vote counting process.

Specifically, Mills asked Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, to declare “the use of unreadable, unverifiable QR-code-based voter tabulation and any other electronic tabulation method that does not permit the voter to verify the vote that is actually counted” unlawful under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Voting machine experts have recommended that states move away from ballot-marking devices that encode votes in bar or QR codes. However, the bipartisan U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), which HAVA established to test and certify voting equipment used in U.S. elections, has certified Georgia’s voting machines.

In fact, Georgia law bars election officials from using voting equipment not certified by the EAC.

Mills also copied U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on the letter.

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