AI can exploit a flaw in Georgia’s voting system to match voters with their secret ballots, researchers warn ahead of November’s elections.
Georgia voters use touchscreens that print ballots for scanners. The Associated Press reported Sept. 13 that a weakness in the scanners’ randomization process allows ballot records and images to be restored to the order in which they were cast. Georgia is the only state using the affected system statewide.
Princeton researcher Max Springer tested the vulnerability using public records and an AI coding assistant. He said he recovered the cast order in 114 of 139 counties examined, covering 1.52 million ballots, or 98.9% of in-person ballots in those counties. With check-in logs and scanner audit records, he said many ballots could be tied to named voters.
Researchers stress the flaw cannot change votes or undermine tabulated results. The danger is privacy: Georgia’s Constitution requires elections by secret ballot, while state law requires machines to keep each voter’s choices absolutely secret.
The vulnerability was disclosed by election-security researchers in 2022, and corrected software received federal certification in 2023. State Election Board member Salleigh Grubbs proposed requiring the secretary of state’s office to install the update by Sept. 15, but the board rejected the rule. Agency lawyers said the update had not been state-certified, would take months to deploy and lacked legislative funding.
Secretary of State officials instead directed counties to route sensitive open-records requests to the state, which plans to redact or withhold identifying fields. Gabriel Sterling said the office is working with a vendor to scramble ballot-image and cast-vote-record order before release.
Coalition for Good Governance Executive Director Marilyn Marks argues restricting public access is not enough. She proposed collecting ballots in locked precinct boxes, then shuffling and scanning them at a central location.
