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Georgia's Secretary of State Brian Kemp Doxes Thousands of Absentee Voters
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Georgia's secretary of state and candidate for state governor in the midterm election, Brian Kemp, has taken the unusual, if not unprecedented step of posting the personal details of 291,164 absentee voters online for anyone to download. Kemp's office posted an Excel file on its website within hours of the results of the general election, exposing the names and addresses of state residents who mailed in an absentee ballot -- including their reason why, such as if a person is "disabled" or "elderly."
The file, according to the web page, allows Georgia residents to "check the status of your mail-in absentee ballot." Millions of Americans across the country mail in their completed ballots ahead of election day, particularly if getting to a polling place is difficult -- such as if a person is disabled, elderly or traveling. When reached, Georgia secretary of state's press secretary Candice Broce told TechCrunch that all of the data "is clearly designated as public information under state law," and denied that the data was "confidential or sensitive." "State law requires the public availability of voter lists, including names and address of registered voters," she said in an email. "While the data may already be public, it is not publicly available in aggregate like this," said security expert Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, who lives in Georgia. Williams took issue with the reasons that the state gave for each absentee ballot, saying it "could be used by criminals to target currently unoccupied properties." "Releasing this data in aggregate could be seen as suppressing future absentee voters in Georgia who do not want their information released in this manner," he said.
The file, according to the web page, allows Georgia residents to "check the status of your mail-in absentee ballot." Millions of Americans across the country mail in their completed ballots ahead of election day, particularly if getting to a polling place is difficult -- such as if a person is disabled, elderly or traveling. When reached, Georgia secretary of state's press secretary Candice Broce told TechCrunch that all of the data "is clearly designated as public information under state law," and denied that the data was "confidential or sensitive." "State law requires the public availability of voter lists, including names and address of registered voters," she said in an email. "While the data may already be public, it is not publicly available in aggregate like this," said security expert Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, who lives in Georgia. Williams took issue with the reasons that the state gave for each absentee ballot, saying it "could be used by criminals to target currently unoccupied properties." "Releasing this data in aggregate could be seen as suppressing future absentee voters in Georgia who do not want their information released in this manner," he said.
Yeah I mean it was all on the up and up when a box of ballots was "found" in the trunk of a car giving Al Franken a senate seat.
Check which party always seems to "find" ballots a few days after close elections, and who it almost always benefits. Or which party insists that non-citizen voting isn't an issue (even though it provably is) and demands to allow anyone to register simply on their word, and to vote without proving they are actually the person who is registered to vote.
Personally, I'd be fine with having to re-register to vote every 4 years, and proving citizenship when doing so. We have to renew driver's licenses every 4-5 years, and prove citizenship status and ID when buying a firearm, so why not for voting?
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Oh please, just because the Democrats have shifted from outright slavery to race hustling and identity politics it doesn't mean they are progressive, unless you define progress as putting everyone at each others throats.
The Republicans are more concerned about the ends, and use them to justify the means. Democrats prefer to take the high road ("they go low, we go high") and not compromise their values even if it means losing the goal.
Hopefully that will change. I don't mean full on gerrymandering and the like, but take the recent supreme court vacancy. Obama did the right thing, nominated someone uncontroversial and middle of the road, and the Republicans just outright refused to even hold a confirmation hearing. Constitution doesn't say they /have to/, right?
Obama could have forced the issue, just appointed the guy without confirmation, but he took the high road and kept complaining about it. Now the Republicans have got their guy on the bench, to further their goal of undoing Roe v. Wade.
Even worse they are busy preemptively accusing the Democrats of being obstructionists because they think it will force them to take the high road and try to work with Trump and the Senate. Agree the budget instead of shutting the government down, because they don't want to get down to the Republican's level.
It's time to focus more on the ends. Want to stop the wall? You are going to have to obstruct, to filibusterer and shut everything down until it's done.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
You are way out of line!