In the end, he found that Georgia statute 21-2-300(a)(2) – which states that Raffensperger must certify that machines are “safe and practicable for use” – by the letter of the law only requires that such certification be done before the machines are put into use. In this case, that was 2019. Bringing this issue up in 2024 does not change the fact that the machines were, in fact, declared safe – rightly or wrongly – by the appropriate officials in 2019. Nor does it matter that those officials were unaware of this potential vulnerability.

What is implied in this reasoning behind the dismissal? Most significantly, Judge McAfee found no reason to question the testimony offered by DeKalb’s experts (Clay Parikh and Ben Cotton). He is impliedly, in a judicial finding, saying that, yes, there is compelling, uncontroverted evidence that Dominion’s voting machines contain the master encryption key – allowing access to all functions, including vote tabulations – in plain sight within the machines.

Likely understanding the significance of his implied finding, Judge McAfee said this in his third-to-last line: “[…] this matter is currently one that must be deferred to the policymaking branches.”

Point taken, Judge McAfee. Now the question becomes: Where is the Georgia GOP legislature? Why are they not walking in to the halls of the legislature today and introducing a bill requiring the Secretary of State to certify that these machines are currently secure? Dominion is the second largest provider of machines in the United States.

Why aren’t all Republican jurisdictions rushing to get this potential security threat addressed, or at least acknowledged? Hopefully some Republicans will have to face questioning on this.