County election officials across Georgia say it's too late to switch to paper ballots in the upcoming elections, despite warnings that hackers could easily penetrate the state's antiquated electronic voting system and that Russia could unleash a new wave of disruptive cyberattacks.
U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg is expected to rule any day on whether the state must switch to paper ballots. Her ruling would come in response to a year-old lawsuit by citizen activists. They argue that the state's current system of relying on electronic voting machines that lack a paper backup is "hopelessly compromised" and paper ballots are necessary to ensure public confidence in the results.
Georgia is one of many states dealing with the fallout of U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 election and has compromised _ or tried to compromise _ state election systems across the country to disrupt the 2018 midterm elections.
