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On March 25, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 14248 entitled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”. When he signed the order, the President mentioned that this may be the first of several election related executive orders necessary to secure United States elections. But how will these orders impact Georgia?

EO 14248 addresses key election integrity issues such as voter eligibility, fraud prevention, foreign interference and accountability for wrongdoing. It also puts in place sorely needed mechanisms to assess the accuracy of voter rolls and the security of voting machines. This sounds like a prescription to cure Georgia’s election ills.

Section 1 explains why the order is necessary. Sections 2 through 8 of the order contain procedural changes that enforce current federal election law pursuant to the President’s unquestioned Constitutional power in Article II Section II which states: “…he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed...” Each of those sections identify the laws that the procedural changes intend to enforce. The changes and how they may impact Georgia are outlined by section as follows:

Section 2, entitled Enforcing the Citizenship Requirement for Federal Elections, orders the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to amend its national mail voter registration form issued to include documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. The proof can be a United States passport, an identification document compliant with requirements of 2005 REAL ID Act, official military identification card or a valid Federal or State government-issued photo ID provided that they indicate the applicant is a U.S. citizen or are accompanied by proof of U.S. citizenship.

Section 2 also requires identification of unqualified registrations by ordering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Secretary of State to make their databases freely available to state and county officials to help them verify citizenship of those registering to vote. It also requires DHS and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to review publicly available voter rolls for ineligible records that do not comply with federal law.

Georgia state and county officials must demonstrate more due diligence in citizenship verification by implementing procedures to access federal systems such as the DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database to verify citizenship.

However, the DOGE review will likely result in the need for a massive voter roll cleanup or new system processes. State reviews already conducted show that the Georgia voter registration database contains roughly one million invalid or ineligible registrations or about 15%-20% of the total registrations. Dr. Rick Richards has already identified how tens of thousands of votes have been cast in each statewide Georgia election for specific ineligible or invalid registrations. These include registrations that have no first or last name, registrants who are deceased or have moved and registered out of state, and addresses that are not deliverable, vacant or illegal such as business addresses and Post Office Boxes.  Citizens have challenged lists of these invalid or ineligible registrations but in several cases Election Boards in counties such as Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett, Forsyth and Chatham have refused to clean their roles. Their refusal leaves these registrations on file to be used for the illegitimate, illegal, fake votes in future election cycles. The citizens who have brought these challenges have taken their case to the State Election Board but Georgia counties must ensure that each voter roll entry represents a citizen living in a verifiable, deliverable address within the state of Georgia.

Section 3, entitled Providing Other Assistance to States Verifying Eligibility, orders the Social Security Commissioner to make Social Security Number Verification and Death Master files available to help federal, state and county election officials verify eligibility. The Commissioner is currently working with DHS to better integrate Social Security data with DHS SAVE system for state and county verification.

Section 3 also orders the Department of Defense to update the Federal Post Card application for proof of citizenship and residency. This will ensure that military and particularly overseas voters are citizens. It further orders the Attorney General (AG) to ensure compliance with voter list maintenance requirements of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Georgians in the military or working overseas need to make sure they have adequate proof of citizenship for future federal elections based on requirements defined in the previous section.

Section 4, entitled Improving the Election Assistance Commission, orders the EAC to amend Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) 2.0 to mandate a verified paper ballot audit trail and ban barcode or QR code in vote counting. It orders the EAC to review and re-certify voting systems under the new standards and rescind previous certifications of voting equipment based on prior standards. It also orders the EAC to cease providing federal funds to States that do not comply with Federal election laws. It further orders them to audit HAVA fund expenditures and report to the Department of Justice (DOJ) any discrepancies or issues in State certifications of compliance with Federal law.

Last year, the General Assembly passed SB189, which has already banned QR code vote accumulation effective July 2026. This year the General Assembly considered SB214 which would have moved the state to hand marked paper ballots thus eliminating the QR code dilemma. Georgia could have become the first state to lead the way in implementing the President’s EO. However, SB214 did not pass this year and Georgia legislature must still come face to face with their QR code dilemma.  

Expert witness testimony in the September 30, 2024, DeKalb GOP v. Raffensperger case further complicates matters. Two experts found that the Dominion voting systems store encryption keys in clear plain text in a database and thus does not pass the original 2005 VVSG 1.0 criteria under which it was allegedly certified in 2019 when Georgia purchased it. Thus, the system cannot be certified and Georgia must implement a certified system to adhere to the new standards and get additional federal funds.

To use their current system in compliance with the new revised VVSG 2.0 standard, Georgia would be required to perform a $66 million upgrade to a later version of the Dominion Democracy Suite 5 system. That would still not solve all of the known security defects including the encryption key issue. It would also leave Georgia vulnerable to additional problems that are likely to be found during the security assessment described in Section 6.

Section 5, entitled Prosecuting Election Crimes, orders the AG to enter into information-sharing agreements, as possible, with the chief State election official or multi-member agency of each State and to provide the DOJ with suspected violations of State and Federal election laws.

It is unlikely that Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger will share any serious violations since he has aa track record of covering up election problems even from supposed adversaries such as Fulton County. However, this section leaves door open for the State Election Board to share results of their investigations.

Section 6, entitled Improving Security of Voting Systems, orders the AG and DHS to take action to prevent all non-citizens from being involved in Federal election administration as long as DHS maintains the designation of elections as critical infrastructure. It also orders the DHS & EAC to review and report on the security of all electronic systems used in voter registration and voting processes.

SB189 passed in 2024 already prevents non-citizens from being involved in elections, however the security assessment of all electronic systems used in voter registration and voting processes could impact Georgia significantly.

Even if Georgia’s Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5 voting system was secure enough to attain certification under new EAC standards which it cannot for reasons explained in Section 4, it also does not meet critical infrastructure criteria necessary to comply with the DHS critical infrastructure designation for elections infrastructure. DOD and Department of Energy systems that meet the criteria must run on all American made hardware, software and components. Any exceptions undergo heavy vetting. Thus, a DHS assessment will likely determine that Georgia’s voting system is too unsecure to conduct future elections.

Furthermore, the system assessment should also identify a myriad of security issues Voter GA outlined in its January 7, 2025, press conference. Expert witness testimony in the DeKalb GOP v. Raffensperger case revealed that all Dominion Democracy Suite systems installed worldwide have interconnectivity through a common shared value in X.509 certificates. Forensic analyses have shown that the Democracy Suite 5.5 voting systems as installed in many states are designed to be connected for remote access. Court proceedings have revealed the Dominion system is programmed and maintained from Serbia and that it was accessed remotely in the 2020 General Election and the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff.

A forensic analysis of an existing Georgia county server found that over 3000 program files had been modified without authorization since the installation in 2019. In addition, a compiler was installed that would allow programs to be added and modified without detection. All of this when presented by federal entities should show that Georgia’s Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5 system is nowhere near secure regardless of any claims from state election officials and vendor representatives. 

Section 7, entitled Compliance with Federal Law Setting the National Election Day, orders the AG to enforce federal provisions that exclude absentee ballots from being received after Election Day and included in tabulated results. This does not include overseas ballots that are allowed three additional days according to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).

This is a critical provision for Georgia given that Secretary Raffensperger certified votes from 5 million 2020 ballots after telling the NBC Today show on the morning after the election that 4.7 million total voters voted and there was only 2% left to count. At that time Donald Trump was holding a 103,750-vote lead and Raffensperger told NBC that “We don’t’ guess.”  And the outstanding 94,000 votes to count would not change the Presidential election outcome. In reality, the 300,000 extra votes he certified changed the outcome of not only the Presidential race but the U.S. Senate race, by forcing a runoff between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff.

As a result, the Georgia General Assembly passed SB189 in 2024 which ensures all ballots accepted must be accounted for as total ballots cast and left to count on Election Night. Georgia law appears to fulfill the intent of this section of the EO.

Section 8, entitled Preventing Foreign Interference and Unlawful Use of Federal Funds, orders the AG and Treasury Secretary to prioritize enforcement of laws to prevent foreign nationals from contributing or donating in U.S. elections. It also orders the AG to prioritize enforcement to prohibit lobbying by organizations or entities that have received any Federal funds.

The Georgia General Assembly passed SB202 in 2021 and SB211 in 2023 to prevent counties from accepting private money. The General Assembly was unwilling to regulate the Georgia state government in the same manner though. To fulfill this section of the EO, the Georgia state government must also ensure that it accepts no private money. 

Since the order restricts lobbying only by organizations that have received Federal funds it does not address the notorious leadership funds that were passed into law by SB221 in 2021. Those funds use private money to subvert campaign finance law.

Section 9, entitled Federal Actions to Address Executive Order 14019, orders all agencies to submit a report describing compliance with this order to the President within 90 days through the Domestic Policy Assistant. That means federal agencies operating in Georgia counties must cease any partisan get out the vote efforts which should have already been banned by HAVA.

Implementation

Of four lawsuits, challenging certain provisions of the EO, the two main ones are brought by AGs from Democrat majority states and national Democrat Party organizations. Several media assets have falsely reported that the Trump EO was blocked by a judge, however, the EO has roughly 40 individual provisions and only two have been subjected to a temporary injunction. The most significant injunctive claim is that a President cannot order the EAC to amend its voter registration form to include proof of citizenship because it is an independent entity.  This claim ignores Trump’s previously mentioned Article II Presidential Powers plus it is moot if Congress passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act or the EAC simply calls an Executive Session and votes to amend the form now that they have consulted with states on the change.

The Georgia legislature has done a good job in preventing future foreign interference in elections and in ensuring domestic ballots are not accepted after Election Day. State and county election officials must work with federal agencies to ensure all registrants are U.S. citizens and coordinate with the DOJ when real crimes are discovered.

But most importantly, Georgia election officials and legislators must come face to face with the reality that our voter rolls and electronic voting system are corrupted. This negligence has led to a national security issue for Americans voting in federal elections. The House Elections Blue Ribbon Study Committee and State Election Board voter roll investigations are steps in the right direction. But Georgians have been forced to turn toward the federal government to protect their right to vote and have their vote counted equally. At this point the Trump election order and subsequent Congressional action appear the best hope to restore Georgia election integrity.

BIO

Garland Favorito is the co-founder of Voters Organized of Trusted Election Results in Georgia, VoterGA, a non-partisan, non-profit, election integrity organization formed in 2006. He is a 40+ year career Information Technology professional with a 20-year background in voting system technology.

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