Election data sought in suit was deleted

‘Inexcusable conduct’ will be investigated, secretary of state says.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Thursday that his office is launching an investigation after data was quietly destroyed on a computer server shortly after a lawsuit was filed seeking to force the state to overhaul its election technology.

The data wipe, first reported by The Associated Press, was revealed in an email sent by a state prosecutor to lawyers representing election transparency advocates who filed the lawsuit on July 3 questioning the security and accuracy of Georgia’s election infrastructure.

The documents show the destruction of the data occurred July 7 at the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University, which runs the state’s election system.

In a lengthy statement, Kemp said his office had no involvement in the decision to wipe the server, nor was it notified in advance.

“We will not stand for this kind of inexcusable conduct or gross incompetence,” said Kemp, whose office oversees Georgia’s elections. “Those responsible at KSU should be held accountable for their actions. The Secretary of State’s Office is also coordinating with FBI officials to get our own copy of the data that was erased at KSU.”

Representatives at Kennesaw State University late Thursday issued a statement explaining that a server that had been examined by the FBI was wiped so it could be repurposed.

KSU spokeswoman Tammy DeMel said in the statement that the FBI made a copy of all of the data on the server before informing the school it had not been compromised and returning the server.

“The data and information that was on the server in question has been and is still in the possession of the FBI and will remain available to the parties in the event it is determined to be relevant in the pending litigation,” DeMel said.

The news brought a sweep of reactions from Georgia leaders, from calls to over- haul the state’s election system to pleas for caution. State Rep. Ed Setzler, a Republican who has long advocated for new protections for the elec- tronic-based system, said it’s a reminder that “Georgia is in need of a change.”

Many Democrats said they were outraged by the report. U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson said the “apparent deliberate destruction of evidence” raised questions about the validity of the results in the 6th Congressional District contest in April, a high-profile election for an open U.S. House seat that wound up being the costliest in the nation’s history.

“What used to take place in courthouse basements and backrooms on election night can now be accomplished with a few keystrokes on a laptop computer,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, my suspicions can never be proven wrong because Georgia elec- tion officials deleted and destroyed the evidence.”

Kemp, who is running for governor, said his office stands by the results of previous elections. “Despite the undeniable ineptitude at

KSU’s Center for Elections Systems,” he added, “Geor- gia’s elections are safe and our systems remain secure.”

The KSU center has helped run Georgia’s elections for the past 15 years, but it has fallen under increased scru- tiny since a private cyberse- curity researcher discovered security lapses that could have exposed more than 6.5 million voter records and other sensitive information.

Kemp’s office in July decided to eventually move all its elections work in-house and build its own team to run Georgia’s elections.

The lawsuit was brought by the Coalition for Good Governance and several Georgia voters. Marilyn Marks, the group’s has said executive the security director, lapses show the state’s system is “vulnerable and unreliable.”

Experts say the destruc- tion of the data could hinder the plaintiffs’ case, though it was not immediately clear whether it was a legal vio- lation. A spokesman for the FBI’s Atlanta office declined to comment.

Richard DeMillo, a Georgia Tech computer scientist who has kept tabs on the lawsuit, said the wipe “makes it pos- sible for the (defendants) to make whatever claim they want” about whether Geor- gia’s most recent elections were compromised by hack- ers.

“An analysis of the files themselves would be useful in knowing whether election software or databases were altered in any way that would be useful to hackers intent on changing votes,” DeMillo said. It’s likely to cause aftershocks at the Georgia Legislature, where a growing number of lawmakers have pushed for paper backups to safeguards. ballots and Among other them new is House Minority Leader Bob Trammell, who said the data wipe was a “damning indictment against our present elections system.” “For the sake of the integrity of the voting process in Georgia, we must move with immediate haste to replace our old voting machines and system with modern voting machines with an auditable paper trail that cannot be deleted or manipulated,” he said. Georgia’s current system was considered state-of-theart when it was adopted 15 years ago but is now acknowledged by experts to be vulnerable to security risks and buggy software. Only a handful of states still use similar electronic systems, which voters know for their digital touch screens. A majority — 41 states — either have or are moving toward voting done entirely on paper or on a hybrid system that incorporates some kind of paper trail. That could soon change in Georgia: Voters in Conyers are casting paper ballots along with new voting and tabulating machines as part of a pilot program as they decide on a new mayor and two council seats.