ATLANTA (NEWSnet/AP) — The question of whether Georgia's electronic voting system has major cybersecurity flaws that amount to a violation of voters' constitutional rights is set to be decided at trial in early 2024.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg issued a ruling late Friday in a lawsuit filed by activists who want the state to ditch its electronic voting machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots.

Totenberg set a Jan. 9 bench trial, which means there will be no jury.

The state had asked the judge to rule in its favor without going to trial, but Totenberg found there are “material facts in dispute” that must be decided at trial.

She also suggests the two sides should work together to reach a resolution.

“The Court cannot wave a magic wand in this case to address the varied challenges to our democracy and election system in recent years, including those presented in this case,” she wrote. “But reasonable, timely discussion and compromise in this case, coupled with prompt, informed legislative action, might certainly make a difference that benefits the parties and the public.”

The lawsuit was filed by several individual voters and Coalition for Good Governance, which advocates for election security and integrity, against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and members of the state election board. It claims the current configuration of the state's election system presents a threat to voters’ right to have votes tabulated accurately.

The electronic voting system the state uses, purchased from Dominion Voting Systems in 2019 and implemented statewide in 2020, has been a target of Donald Trump supporters, who claimed the machines were used to help steal the election from him. The election equipment manufacturer has aggressively responded with litigation, notably reaching a $787 million settlemtent with Fox News in April 2023.

Totenberg made clear in a footnote in her order that evidence “does not suggest that the Plaintiffs are conspiracy theorists of any variety ... some of the nation’s leading cybersecurity experts and computer scientists have provided testimony and affidavits on behalf of Plaintiffs’ case in the long course of this litigation.”

The lawsuit predates the swirl of controversy that followed the 2020 election. When the suit was filed in 2017, it targeted the paperless touchscreen voting machines that Georgia had been using for 15 years. It was then amended to challenge the election system the state bought in 2019, with claims the new system has similar vulnerability.

The touchscreen voting machines in Georgia print a paper ballot with a human-readable summary and a QR code, a type of barcode, that is read by a scanner to count the votes.

Activists say voters can’t be certain the barcode read by the scanner accurately reflects their selections. Many voters also don’t take the time to check the human-readable part, making meaningful audits impossible, activists say.

Lawyers for the election officials have consistently argued that no election system is flawless and the state takes numerous measures to protect the system’s integrity.

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