MARTIN et al. v. FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF REGISTRATION AND ELECTIONS et al., 307 Ga. 193

Summary

HOLDINGS: [1]-In an election contest, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in managing the proceedings leading up to trial, including discovery and the denial of the challengers' requests for continuance; in limiting inspection of the direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting systems and the GEMS database, the trial court balanced the challengers' need for discovery against the State's secruity concerns regarding the highly confidential information in the GEMS database and its source code; [2]-The challengers failed to show that the use of defective and malfunctioning DRE machines constituted misconduct and irregularity sufficient to change or place in doubt the result of the election under O.C.G.A. § 21-2-522; the small number of irregularities involved, and the lack of evidence of misconduct by any election official, failed to overcome the margin of victory of 123,172 votes.