Race for governor of Georgia roiled by hacking claim

ATLANTA — The bruising race for governor of Georgia has been upended by unsupported, eleventh-hour allegations from the Republican candidate, who is also the state’s chief election official, that Democrats sought to hack the voter registration system.

GOP nominee Brian Kemp asked the FBI to investigate the Democratic Party, saying it tried to hack the system he controls as secretary of state.

His Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, said Kemp is making a baseless accusation to deflect attention from an apparently severe new security flaw in the system he is responsible for overseeing.

Kemp’s office did not detail any Democratic acts, offering no evidence for opening a probe of his opposition just days before the election. The FBI has declined to comment.

Kemp leveled the allegation after an attorney for security advocates notified the FBI and Kemp’s office on Saturday that a private citizen alerted him to what appeared to be a major flaw in the database used to check in voters at the polls.

Independent computer scientists said the flaw enables anyone with access to an individual voter’s personal information to log on to Georgia’s MyVoter registration portal and alter or delete any voter’s record, potentially causing havoc.

Abrams on Monday called Kemp a “bald-faced liar” who cooked up the allegation to deflect attention from his record of incompetence as secretary of state presiding over an antiquated, vulnerability-laced elections system.

“There was never a hack,” she told a gathering at a Savannah union hall. “What was wrong is that he failed to do his job. He is abusing his power.”

The finger-pointing is the latest turn in a campaign whose final weeks have been dominated by charges of voter suppression and countercharges of attempted voter fraud.

Polls suggest Kemp and Abrams are locked in a tight race in a contest that has taken on historic significance because Abrams could become the nation’s first black female governor.