On August 15, a federal lawsuit over the cybersecurity of Georgia's voting systems reached a crucial milestone, with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ordering several measures toward securing the State's elections. Judge Amy Totenberg handed a victory to Morrison & Foerster's pro bono clients, a group of Georgia citizens, in an opinion that outlined serious issues with the outdated and vulnerable voting system.
A MoFo team including partners David Cross and Joe Palmore, as well as associates Jane Bentrott and Rob Manoso, won the groundbreaking ruling prohibiting Georgia from using an all-electronic voting system with no independent paper record, because it likely violates the constitutional right to vote in today's environment of sophisticated election interference. The court further ordered that the state fix its egregiously unreliable electronic voter registration database.
The suit was filed in 2017 after state officials ignored multiple breaches of the Georgia voting system through its public website that revealed its vulnerability to cyberattack. The case is Curling v. Raffensperger, No. 17-CV-2989-AT (N.D. Ga.)