The Georgia secretary of state’s office said Tuesday that it plans to reexamine the state’s new election system “as required by law” after receiving a request from voters.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced last month that the state plans to buy a $106 million election system from Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems. He certified the new system on Aug. 9 and said it will be in place in time for the March 24 primaries.
A petition bearing the signatures of more than 1,450 Georgia voters was submitted Monday to Raffensperger’s office. It says the Dominion system doesn’t meet the requirements of Georgia’s voting system certification rules and doesn’t comply with the state election code.
Georgia law allows voters to request that the secretary of state “reexamine any such device previously examined and approved by him or her” as long as at least 10 voters sign onto the request.
Secretary of state’s office spokeswoman Hayley McCloud said in an email Tuesday that the office “will do a re-examination, as required by the law, even though the system has already been examined.”
The law says the people or organization requesting the reexamination shall pay “the reasonable expenses” for the reexamination. The petition asks the secretary of state to waive any such fees or, if fees are not waived, to notify the petitioners before beginning the reexamination.
Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said Tuesday that the secretary of state’s office had not yet determined what the reexamination would look like, but she said it wouldn’t delay the implementation of the new system. She said the cost will be paid by the petitioners, but she didn’t have a number yet.
The petition, which was filed by voting integrity advocates on behalf of voters, alleges that Raffensperger failed to complete key parts of the certification process and used the incorrect testing standards.
“Petition signers certainly do not anticipate being asked to personally pay for a ‘do-over’ of the Secretary’s shoddy work in his flawed certification of the new voting system,” said Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, which coordinated the petition.