Georgia's Brian Kemp Decides To Dox Absentee Voters, Revealing Why They All Voted Absentee

from the voting-irregularities dept

Kind of a key part of the American election setup is the concept of a secret ballot for hopefully obvious reasons. We haven't gone quite so far as eliminating that, but down in Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp (who was running for governor at the same time as he was overseeing the integrity of the election and also putting in place a bunch of attempts at voter suppression) has doxxed hundreds of thousands (291,164 to be exact) of absentee voters by posting an Excel file on the state's website listing out the names, addresses and reasons why they voted absentee.

In typical spokesperson Candice Broce fashion (see her previous nonsensical quotes defending her boss), Broce/Kemp denied that there's anything wrong with this at all. The systems, they are all working perfectly:

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 it is true that voter name and address info is required to be made available, it is usually not made available in aggregate for anyone to just download without restrictions. And, it's especially concerning that they released the reasons for voting absentee just a day or so after the election -- as people pointed out that this could be quite useful info for criminals looking for who might be away from their homes.

More concerning, of course, is the idea that this could scare off future voters as well who don't want such info being released in such a manner.

Either way, the idea that the Secretary of State, who kept insisting how wonderful his electronic voting systems were, would then release a giant Excel spreadsheet should again raise questions about the technological skills of whoever set up the system, let alone Kemp for overseeing such a system.

Filed Under: absentee voters, brian kemp, doxxing, elections, georgia, voter suppression