Judge won’t order immediate switch to hand-marked ballots

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — A federal judge on Sunday expressed serious concerns about Georgia’s new election system but declined to order the state to abandon its touchscreen voting machines in favor of hand-marked paper ballots for the November election.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by voting integrity activists that challenge the election system the state bought last year from Dominion Voting Systems for more than $100 million.

The judge said the activists raised “true risks posed” by the new system. But she said ordering a switch to hand-marked paper ballots so close to the election “cannot but cause voter confusion and some real measure of electoral disruption.”