Could Jon Ossoff’s Georgia House Race Be Hacked?

Jon Ossoff

By Daniel J. Solomon June 15, 2017

In a race as close as the congressional runoff between Jon Ossoff and Karen Handel, a few hundred votes can make a big difference. That’s one of the reasons cybersecurity experts are raising alarms about possible hacking into Georgia’s voting system.

“I was absolutely stunned, just the sheer quantity of files I had acquired,” Logan Lamb, a computer science researcher told Politico, recounting how he was able to gather information on the Web site of Georgia’s balloting firm that included all the registration records of the state’s voters and passwords to secure portals where votes are tallied and verified.

He notified the state, and his revelations led the Rocky Mountain Foundation to sue Georgia to stop the use of its current voting machines in the upcoming special election. “The security weaknesses recently exposed would be a welcome mat for bad actors,” the head of the organization told Politico.

Georgia and the balloting firm it uses have defended the integrity of the vote and are fighting the suit in court. But it’s another disturbing revelation, on the heels of news that Russian hackers attempted to tamper with voter registration systems in numerous states during last November’s presidential contest.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO