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.

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