Judge Amy Totenberg of the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled Monday that the state must delay certification of the election results pending consideration of provisional ballots cast due to flaws in Georgia’s registration system.

The plaintiff, Common Cause Georgia, filed the action alleging that Georgia’s voter registration server that is used to determine voter eligibility is not secure and “is vulnerable to multiple security breaches and exploitable by manipulation of voter data.”

The plaintiff maintained that the (former) Secretary of State failed to keep voter information secure even though he knew that the system was vulnerable. It was from this failure to act that plaintiff alleged that there was an increased risk of mismanagement and manipulation of voter information, causing eligible voters to to be absent from the voter registration list and required to cast provisional ballots. If a voter who cast a provisional ballot cannot be verified, the ballot will not be counted.

The court granted in part the plaintiff’s Motion for Temporary Restraining Order. The court ordered the following relief:

1. 1. 1. The Secretary of State must create a hotline or website for individuals who cast provisional ballots to ascertain whether their ballots were counted, giving reasons for any rejections. This hotline/website must be well publicized on the Secretary of State’s own website, county websites, and county election websites.
      2. The Secretary of State may not certify the results of the election until 5pm on November 16. Any county that has 100 or more provisional ballots must not submit their results until they conduct a good faith review of the eligibility of the voters.

Sarah Henderson, Executive Director of Common Cause Georgia, commented, “Today’s ruling is a victory for the voters of Georgia. We are all stronger when every eligible voter is allowed to participate in our elections. This victory helps achieve greater voter confidence in our elections.”