Politics
Politics

Georgia voting system unlike Iowa’s, says elections chief

The Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger talks to the media in front of old voting machines while waiting for the largest shipment of Georgia’s new secure paper-ballot voting machines at the Dekalb County Voter Registration & Elections offices on Dec. 30th, 2019. 2839 units are to be delivered for Dekalb County. (Photo by Phil Skinner).
The Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger talks to the media in front of old voting machines while waiting for the largest shipment of Georgia’s new secure paper-ballot voting machines at the Dekalb County Voter Registration & Elections offices on Dec. 30th, 2019. 2839 units are to be delivered for Dekalb County. (Photo by Phil Skinner).
By Mark Niesse
Feb 5, 2020

Georgia's new voting system is very different from the app that caused problems reporting results of Democratic caucuses in Iowa, said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Georgia election officials are rolling out a statewide suite of voting equipment, including touchscreens, printers and voter check-in tablets. Printed-out ballots will be counted by optical scanners.

In Iowa, a mobile app created to compile and report caucus results malfunctioned, reporting only partial results. Results were being tabulated on paper.

“For those who are concerned about the primary process in Georgia following the events in Iowa last night, know that in numerous ways, Georgia is not Iowa,” Raffensperger, a Republican, said in a statement Tuesday.

Georgia bought its $104 million voting system from Dominion, the second-largest elections company in the nation. The Iowa Democrat Party purchased its software from Shadow Inc., a tech startup.

About the Author

Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.

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