MoProBono Fall 2018 Newsletter

12 MoProBono Fall 2018 A Morrison & Foerster pro bono team is making headway with a federal lawsuit on behalf of Georgia voters to challenge the state’s unsafe elections system, which uses all-electronic voting machines without independent paper backup. Georgia is one of just five states that rely on these antiquated systems, leaving the state especially vulnerable to election interference through cyberattack—a vulnerability that in Georgia’s case has been verified by independent experts. In late August, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg denied the state’s motion to dismiss the suit and scheduled a hearing on plaintiffs’ request to safeguard the integrity of the election by using the state’s absentee ballot system to run an all-paper election in the November midterms. The court denied that request, fearing that instituting this change so close to the upcoming election could introduce controversy, confusion, and chaos. However, Judge Totenberg made clear that change is coming to Georgia’s voting system, writing that “the Plaintiffs’ evidence as to the problems of security, accuracy, reliability, and currency of Georgia’s system and software” had “hardly been rebutted” by the state and advising the state that “further delay is not tolerable in their confronting and tackling the challenges before the State’s election balloting system.” Commenting on the ruling, Washington, D.C. partner David Cross, who is leading the pro bono team, promised, “We will continue the fight for all Georgia voters – and the Court makes clear that while we lost this initial battle, we are on track to win the war for safe, secure, transparent, honest elections in Georgia.” This case, which continues in litigation, has received notable attention across several media outlets, including the Washington Post , Bloomberg , and Infosecurity Group. PROTECTING THE INTEGRITY OF ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA “We will continue the fight for all Georgia voters – and the Court makes clear that while we lost this initial battle, we are on track to win the war for safe, secure, transparent, honest elections in Georgia.”