Why are we still wasting time with the Big Lie?
Gabriel Sterling brandishing Sidney Powell’s $2,700 restitution check at the Capitol in Atlanta on November 1, 2023. Photo by Jill Jordan Sieder.
We just had another safe and secure Election Day in Georgia! In fact, according to Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer for the Secretary of State’s office, “Georgia does a fantastic job of running elections … the 2020 election was the most secure election in American history, and the 2022 election was more secure than that.”
So, why are we still wasting time and taxpayer money entertaining the Big Lie that our elections can be—and have been—stolen?
Last week, on the eve of this year’s municipals, some of our Republican state senators used a Senate Ethics Committee hearing to challenge how election officials are handling a potential security update to our state's election system.
It’s true, voting machines can be breached. A computer-scientist given unfettered access to a machine under laboratory conditions was able to crack its security. Likewise, disgraced attorney Sidney Powell was able to breach machines in Coffee County with the criminal help of a local election official. State election officials say they’re aware of such vulnerabilities, have mitigated them to date, and are pilot testing a software update.
But it’s also true, the state Senate is led by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, an unindicted alleged co-conspirator in Fulton County’s election-interference racketeering case. And some of the committee members were present at hearings where Rudy Giuliani and others lied about Georgia's election system and results. (Shouldn’t it be a crime to lie to the legislature?)
When these same Republican senators unironically complain about public trust in the voting process, they fail to appreciate their roles propagating the unfounded 2020 presidential election conspiracy theories that sowed such distrust in the first place and which led the 2021 overhaul of our election laws.
Frankly, anyone who can’t answer the question, “who won the 2020 presidential election” with the empirically-proven answer “Joe Biden”—whether they like him or not—isn’t rational enough to legislate our election security.
Are know-nothings at the helm of our democracy?
The Senate Ethics Committee on November 1, 2023. Photo by Jill Jordan Sieder.
I don’t expect our legislators to be experts on everything. But I do expect them to be experts on their own legislative process and to educate themselves ahead of time so they’re not wasting their time and our tax dollars perpetuating Big Lie rhetoric with uninformed questions.
Here are the facts: Georgia started using Dominion voting systems in 2019 after a push by state Senate Republicans to replace paper ballots with a more secure solution. As a result, we now have 40,000 federally-compliant voting machines operating in all 159 counties. When in use, a combination of digital voting and counting is backed up with hard-copy paper records. When not in use, they’re locked and protected by anti-tampering devices. At all times, they’re offline and can’t be altered remotely.
And no machine has ever flipped a vote.
Whoever said there’s no such thing as a stupid question clearly didn’t attend last week’s hearing on election security.
Senators Williams and Beach suggested “regular Joe” constituents don’t trust the election process— but not because they told their constituents not to! They suggested voters are alarmed by the QR codes printed on their paper ballots. Perhaps I have a higher opinion of Georgia voters, or maybe I’m swayed by the familiar ubiquity of QR codes on everything from menus to payment apps, but these QR codes are a critical security feature and one of the reasons Republican senators wanted ballot-marking devices in the first place.
But Senator Dolezal came across as the least informed legislator at the hearing. He challenged election officials about why they’d done nothing to address known system flaws and accused Dominion reps of providing critical software updates that don’t work on our fleet of voting machines. But neither of these accusations were grounded in reality. State election officials had mitigated the known flaws last year and Dominion had solved the software compliance matter in a timely fashion and help us secure federal certification.
I don’t need our senators to know everything. But I expect better than this.
Georgia’s elections are secure AF.
Voters cast their ballots at Park Tavern in Piedmont Park. Photo by John Spink for the AJC.
If we can agree, election deniers shouldn’t be making election law, perhaps we can also agree, luddites shouldn’t direct state technology projects (and, no, I’m not critiquing Senator Albers’ joint meeting about AI … not yet).
Thankfully, Georgia’s voting system is in good hands—both today and going forward.
Most state officials—Republicans and Democrats—stand by our election results. Ethics Committee Chair Senator Burns even opened last week’s hearing by saying, “I have complete confidence in the Georgia voting system as it exists today.”
And despite how uninformed questioning at that hearing made it seem, the Secretary of State’s office issued their plan to maintain our secure elections back in July. The hypothetical flaws in the system are already remedied and the legacy hardware issues are solved. In 2024, voters can look forward to using the existing voting system and, by January 2025, all of Georgia’s voting machines will be updated with Dominion’s new software.
So, why does it take so long to update the system?
First, the state is pilot testing Dominion’s software updates on machines in just five counties. This test must, by law, undergo a rigorous process of state and federal certification before the voting system can be updated statewide.
Second, our voting system operates offline, for cybersecurity purposes. So, while Apple can update a billion iPhones all at once across the Internet, Dominion has to update our 40,000 machines manually. Oof!
But what do we do about the senators from Alpharetta, Cumming, and Milledgeville who looked so foolish last week? I think we need to realize, they’re using hearings like these to campaign instead of doing their jobs as legislators.
In my day job as a design consultant, I’m in analogous stakeholder and subject-matter-expert meetings all the time. And if I performed as poorly in front of my clients as these senators did in front of their constituents, I’d be fired.
So, how do we fire election-denying know-nothing senators? We vote.
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for state senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
