Georgia’s election commission rejects claims of manipulation of electronic voting

Georgia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has rejected claims that the country’s electronic voting system could have been used to manipulate election results, accusing analyst Vano Machavariani of spreading misinformation.

In a statement on Tuesday, the CEC said Machavariani had made comments on a television programme suggesting that elections could have been falsified through the use of voting technology. The commission said such claims were based on an incorrect understanding of the technical capabilities of the equipment used in Georgia.

The CEC said the official election results are based on the manual counting of ballot papers by precinct election commissions. Under Georgia’s election legislation, results generated by electronic vote-counting devices are preliminary, while the manually counted results are included in the official results protocols.

The commission also rejected claims that data could be uploaded to the voting machines in a way that would allow results to be manipulated. It said the electronic technologies used in Georgia have different architecture and procedures from the systems cited by Machavariani as examples from Russia.

The CEC said six audit reports by US-based election technology auditing company Pro V&V had been produced in connection with Georgia’s last two general elections. The commission said the reports confirmed that the electronic voting technologies operated properly and complied with international practices and standards.

Pro V&V conducted a three-stage compliance audit for the 2024 parliamentary elections, including source-code and configuration checks and an assessment of election-day procedures. The CEC said the audit found no technological possibility of altering a voter’s choice.