I learned my ballot wasn’t secret. Georgia must protect voters’ rights.
I have voted in every Georgia election since I turned 18. After submitting my ballot, I proudly peel a Georgia Peach sticker with the words “I secured my vote!” and place it on my shirt.
Most of the time I keep who I voted for private, choosing instead to simply encourage others to go to the polls, regardless of whether they shared my political views.
I was confident that even if my friends pressed me to reveal whether I voted for Vice President Kamala Harris or President Donald Trump, they would never know the answer unless I chose to tell them.
My belief in the secret ballot was shattered three days before the Nov. 3 election when someone I had never met, with my written consent, accurately identified every candidate I voted for in Georgia’s May 19 primary election.
I was told who I selected to be the U.S. Senate nominee. It matched my records. I was told who I selected to be my party’s governor nominee. It was the same. We repeated this process all the way down my ballot. A stranger was reading to me the names of the candidates I voted for.
After some research, I learned that Georgia’s voting systems were operating with a security vulnerability for the last four years. Max Springer, a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University, documented that by using common artificial intelligence tools and publicly available data, anonymous ballots can be descrambled and matched to individual voters.
In my case, the ballot was matched using only publicly accessible information available for download on the state’s website. It is also worth noting that this flaw does not affect the final vote tabulation, only the secrecy of the ballot.
Georgians deserve clear answers
Article II, Section I of the Georgia Constitution guarantees our right to a secret ballot. The Georgia General Assembly went further by codifying in law that our voting systems must operate in “absolute secrecy.”
For my vote this May, the secretary of state and Board of Elections have failed to keep my vote secret. I am not the only Georgian who has lost their ballot’s anonymity.
The Georgia secretary of state’s office claimed that new instructions were sent to county election officials to fix the vulnerability for the Nov. 3 general election. I don’t know if these efforts were successful or if ballot secrecy was restored in time.
Regardless, I have lost confidence in our secretary of state’s office and Board of Elections. My previous ballot was not secret. Georgians deserve a clear answer for why this vulnerability was not fixed when it was discovered in October 2022.
Secretary of State-elect Penny Brown Reynolds, has an opportunity to bring transparency to the election secrecy failures of the last four years.
On day one, she should lead a complete audit of the current systems and work with the state Legislature to overhaul Georgia’s election software, hardware and processes. We must prevent anyone in the future from peering into the ballot booth.
This is a civil rights issue for Georgians
At the end of the day, this failure illustrates the larger truth that our institutions have never been and will never be without flaws. Our best creations simultaneously reflect humanity’s laudable triumphs and reprehensible shortcomings. Georgia’s elections over the last four years are no exception.
The call to action is for good people to step into halls of power under the Gold Dome in Atlanta and in Washington, D.C., to preserve liberty and protect our civil rights. Our nation has a strong heritage of men and women doing just that.
The original U.S. Constitution allowed for the continuation of slavery. Our 16th president — Abraham Lincoln — led our nation through a bloody civil war to abolish the practice and chart a path toward racial and civil equality.
Susan B. Anthony lobbied Congress and traveled across our nation to advocate for women’s suffrage. She was instrumental in the 19th Amendment’s ultimate ratification.
In multiple conflicts prior to 1971, young men were drafted to fight in wars even thought they were too young to vote for the leaders who sent them. Students on college campuses across our nation successfully pressured Congress to lower the voting age to 18 with the passage of the 26th Amendment.
Today we have the same opportunity to demand that our institutions protect our civil rights. We have an obligation to ensure our government officials uphold the Georgia Constitution and protect the secrecy of our ballots. Election officials need to be candid with Georgians about this ballot secrecy failure and take immediate action to rebuild public confidence in our electoral procedures.
Alexander Glover is a J.D. candidate at the University of Georgia School of Law. You can read his other writings on his Substack.
Send letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer with your name, city or town and contact information to letters@ajc.com.
The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.