ATLANTA — There's a big controversy settling over the vote in Georgia.
The GBI is investigating whether the state Democratic party hacked the Secretary of State's voter website. The Dems deny it.
Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also running for Governor, said the probe has nothing to do with the election.
"I'm doing my job,” he said. “This is how we would handle any investigation when something like this comes up because I can assure you if I hadn't done anything, and the story came out that something was going on, you'd be going, ‘Well, why didn't you act?’”
While the investigating is ongoing, this is not the first time there have been concerns about hacking when it comes to Georgia voters.
11Alive’s Natisha Lance took a look back to put context around the most recent accusations.
She found that long before Kemp was on the ballot to possibly become governor of Georgia, he faced criticism over Georgia's election system.
Ours is one of five systems across the country – Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Delaware and New Jersey – that exclusively relies on what experts have called dangerously outdated voting machines.
About two months ago, a federal judge said the machines had a likely potential to be hacked. During the court hearing to determine if paper ballots would be used during the midterm election, the machines proved to be easily hackable and impossible to review in case of glitches.
But the troubles go back even further.
In 2015, Kemp's office accidentally released the social security numbers and other private information of more than six million registered voters. Kemp blamed it on a "clerical error."
The following year, Kemp accused the Department of Homeland Security of attempts to "penetrate the state's firewall." After an investigation, an inspector general's office determined the claim was not true.
In 2017, the office made headlines again when personal data of nearly seven million Georgia voters was exposed, along with passwords used by county employees. Kemp's office blamed that breach on Kennesaw State University, which managed the system on his behalf.
Despite the history and the most recent claims, Kemp promised voter information is safe and secure.
