Georgia Perfects Fully Transparent Secret Ballot

Georgia has achieved a long-overdue breakthrough in election transparency by operating voting machines that can help technologically competent strangers determine exactly how individual citizens voted. Security researchers found that records produced by the state’s touchscreen system could be reordered and combined with public information to match voters with their ballots. One Princeton researcher used artificial intelligence to identify the choices of more than 2,200 voters in two counties during the May primaries. The vulnerability cannot alter votes, limiting its usefulness to anyone interested only in intimidation, retaliation or efficient Thanksgiving arguments.

President Donald Trump praised the advance as a victory over the sinister anonymity traditionally associated with democratic elections. “A secret ballot is very suspicious because nobody knows what happened,” Trump said. “With total transparency, we can find the bad votes, meet the voters and help them choose much better next time.” Election consultants said the system could modernize political outreach by allowing campaigns to stop guessing which residents support them. Candidates could instead identify insufficiently loyal citizens and send personalized reminders that their employers, landlords, relatives and county sheriffs also value civic participation.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office instructed counties to redact sensitive records and began working with the voting-system vendor to scramble ballot order before releasing data. Transparency advocates condemned the response as a reckless return to the obsolete theory that citizens should be free to vote without later explaining themselves to a campaign volunteer holding a clipboard. Privacy, experts noted, merely prevents public officials and private organizations from delivering the tailored consequences voters increasingly expect from modern government.

The State Election Board also rejected a proposed software update before the midterms, citing questions involving authority, funding and timing. Georgia voters may therefore enter the election confident that their ballots will remain secret from everyone except motivated campaigns, employers, relatives, data brokers and hobbyists with an artificial-intelligence subscription. Georgia has preserved the secret ballot by making the secret available to anyone willing to look for it.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.