AJC:

A federal judge has dismissed an epic court case challenging Georgia’s touchscreen voting system, ending the seven-year lawsuit that uncovered election security vulnerabilities and a breach in Coffee County.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg closed the case Monday but cited “substantial concerns” about Georgia’s voting technology, which uses touchscreens to print paper ballots.

The case was a major legal test of Georgia’s voting technology, manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems and installed months before the 2020 election. The lawsuit alleged that the voting technology is dangerously vulnerable to tampering, hacks or programming errors that could change the outcome of an election….

“While we consider our next legal steps, one thing is clear: the Georgia Legislature must act now,” Marks said. “Georgia must move to adopt hand-marked paper ballots for the 2025 and 2026 elections to protect the integrity of our elections and restore public confidence.”

While ruling against the plaintiffs, Totenberg wrote in her decision that their advocacy “helped spark real legislative change,” such as a state law passed last year that would eliminate computer-readable QR codes from ballots by July 1, 2026. The plaintiffs included both liberal and conservative voters, as well as the Coalition for Good Governance.

Totenberg’s dismissal order arrived during the final week of this year’s legislative session, but lawmakers haven’t budgeted money to pay for the estimated $66 million cost of removing QR codes….

Totenberg, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not decide on the merits of the case when she ruled against the plaintiffs. Instead, she dismissed the case because they failed to show they suffered an injury that would entitle them to intervention or relief from the U.S. courts.

You can find the opinion at this link.