ATLANTA — A judge will hear a case Wednesday challenging the privacy of Georgia’s new voting machines.
Early voting begins next week in Georgia's Presidential Primary. 33,000 of the new machines have been delivered to counties statewide in recent weeks.
Among other things, the lawsuit cites an 11Alive News report which raised concerns about whether the secret ballot is really a secret. The report included interviews with voters and an election official in Dooly County.
Pat and Carol West were able to laugh about the visibility of the voting machines they'd used in a special election earlier this month in their rural south Georgia community of Pinehurst.
"Somebody behind you (in the precinct) could actually see how you were voting – not that it would matter to me. But the privacy was not as much as before, to me," Carol West said.
"I have nothing to hide!" laughed her husband Pat.
Some voters navigating the state’s new voting machines told us they could feel the eyes of poll workers or other voters behind them as they cast their special election ballots on the new, bright, upright touchscreens.
A lawsuit says the machines “plainly violate Sumter County citizens’ rights to absolute ballot secrecy” and urges the county to use hand-marked paper ballots instead.
"Georgia law says very clearly, absolute secrecy is guaranteed," said attorney Bruce Brown, who filed the lawsuit. "And they're not guaranteeing it. In fact, they’re flouting it with these gigantic screens."
The Georgia Secretary of State's office has told county election workers to configure the voting machines toward walls in the upcoming presidential primary – so the screens cannot be seen from the rest of the room.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called the lawsuit “a silly and desperate attempt … to interfere with Georgia elections.”
Yet the concern about the new machines is real, says state Sen. Elena Parent (D-42nd District, Atlanta).
"The screens are very large, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except that you can apparently see how everyone is voting across the room," Parent said. "So absolutely, we have to take action to ensure the privacy of individuals who are voting."
The suit was filed in Sumter County because folks there are currently voting in a special election runoff for a vacant state senate seat.
The rest of the state gets its first crack at the state’s new voting system starting on Monday, when early voting begins in Georgia’s Presidential Primary.
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