The Georgia Registered Voter Information System (GARVIS) was believed to be an updated measure to combat cyber-attacks. However, the recently deployed system had a statewide breakdown on Election Day yesterday.
According to a press release by VoterGA, an NGO geared towards securing elections, from 11 am to 4 pm, the Salesforce cloud-based system that allows third-party vendors to manage Georgian voter data suffered a critical outage, making the state’s “My Voter Page” inaccessible for those seeking to locate their precincts and other information. It also prevented county election offices from verifying absentee ballots and updating receipts of mail-in ballots, which prevents double voting.
VoterGA reported that the failure ultimately did not affect most voters since voter lists are downloaded to each poll pad for Election Day voter verification. Still, several counties utilized poll books with vulnerable remote GARVIS access.
The GARVIS initiative completed its development on January 19, 2022. The launch was initially delayed a year until March 2023. The Secretary of State’s office said the trial run was “successful” in the November 2023 municipal election. However, it had over 3,500 open support tickets just that year and freezing defect corrections for another month. This year’s primaries were the first opportunity for the system to be implemented statewide.