Democratic Party of Georgia

Help Move Georgia Forward

  • Your Party
    • About Us
    • Officers
    • Party Leadership
    • County Committees
    • Caucuses & Affiliates
  • Our Candidates
  • Press Releases
  • Voter Protection
  • Events
  • Take Action
  • Store

Jun 15 2017

As SoS, Karen Handel Stonewalled Measures to Ensure Integrity of Elections System

Atlanta, GA – By now, it’s no secret that career politician Karen Handel has never met an elected office she didn’t want to occupy. But when she does actually get the job, she proves to be quite unskilled and unqualified.

“Karen Handel put her own personal agenda and ambition over her duties as Georgia’s chief elections officer, which is exactly what voters have come to expect from career politicians like Handel. Instead of heeding the advice of experts to properly administer our elections, she buried the report while having one foot out the door campaigning for her next elected office.” – Michael Smith, Communications Director 

The Washington Post reports:

Eleven years ago, after Karen Handel had been elected as Georgia’s first Republican secretary of state since Reconstruction, Richard DeMillo, head of the Office of Policy Analysis and Research at Georgia Tech, got a call about an important project. The state’s election system, updated with new machines, needed a hard look.

“They said: Take a look at our processes, take a look at our technology, and give us your opinion,” DeMillo said. “I assigned some people from our Information Security Center to work on it.”

In May 2008, the Georgia Tech Information Security Center and Office of Policy Analysis and Research released its report, “A Security Study of the Processes and Procedures Surrounding Electronic Voting in Georgia.” A number of potential problems came up, from the transportation of election machines by prison laborers to password protection of machines and poll-watcher training.

“A malicious party with minimal knowledge of the voting machines could gain the confidence of the poll workers and thus access to the voting units,” the authors wrote. And the state’s Center for Election Systems, at Kennesaw State University, also was at risk. “The election center at Kennesaw State University fills a key role in Georgia’s statewide election procedures, which makes it a potential target of a systemic attack.”

In 2017, the threat became real; there was a data breach at Kennesaw State. While the Georgia secretary of state’s office said that key equipment was not touched, a lawsuit was filed in which worried parties demanded paper ballots in the June 20 special election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. The plaintiffs lost, but concerns about the state’s 15-year old election system have bubbled up as Democrat Jon Ossoff campaigns against his Republican opponent — Karen Handel.

According to DeMillo, she didn’t follow up on the report.

“She seemed very interested in getting this, at the time,” he said. “Once she was in office for a few months, we heard nothing.”

A recent report from Politico also illustrates a Secretary of State Handel who ignored multiple warnings and actively resisted assistance in ensuring the integrity of Georgia’s elections system:

Someone who should be particularly concerned about the center’s security lapses and the use of the touch-screen machines in the upcoming election is Handel, the Republican vying for the 6th Congressional District seat. In 2006, when Handel ran for secretary of state of Georgia, she made the security of the state’s voting systems one of her campaign issues. After her win, she ordered a security review of the systems and the procedures for using them.

Experts at Georgia Tech conducted the review and found a number of security concerns, which they discussed in a report submitted to Handel. But, oddly, they were prohibited from examining the center’s network or reviewing its security procedures. Richard DeMillo, who was dean of computing at Georgia Tech at the time and led the review, told Politico he and his team argued with officials from the center in Handel’s office, but they were adamant that its procedures and networks would not be included in the review.

“I thought it was very strange,” says DeMillo. “It was kind of a contentious meeting. The Kennesaw people just stamped their foot and said ‘Over our dead body.’”

Although Handel could have insisted that the center’s network be included in the security review, she didn’t. But when DeMillo’s team submitted a draft of their report, he says she sent it back instructing them to add a caveat about the center’s absence from the review. It reads: “The Election Center at Kennesaw State University fills a key role in Georgia’s statewide election procedures, which makes it a potential target of a systematic attack. We did not have sufficient information to evaluate the security safeguards protecting against a centralized compromise at the state level.”

But once they delivered the finished report to Handel, DeMillo says, “We never heard anything more about it.” It’s not clear whether Handel’s office acted on recommendations made in the report. (Handel’s campaign office did not respond to a call for comment.)

###

Written by PNM Admin · Categorized: Georgia Democrats, Georgia Republicans, Press Releases · Tagged: 6th Congressional District, Brian Kemp, Georgia elections, Georgia Secretary of State, hacking, Karen Handel

May 23 2017

As Ossoff Surges in Polls, Handel Continues to Dodge Voters

As Ossoff Surges in Polls, Handel Continues to Dodge Voters

Handel’s embrace of Trump and Pence are dragging down her support

 

Atlanta, GA – A poll commissioned by 11Alive shows Jon Ossoff surging past Karen Handel in the special election runoff in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District.

 

 

From 11Alive – In a new 11Alive exclusive poll conducted by Survey USA, Democrat Jon Ossoff leads the race 51 percent, compared to Karen Handel’s 44 percent. Six percent of voters remain undecided.

The 7 percent lead is beyond the +/- margin of error of 4.3 percent, but “close enough in a low-turnout, stand-alone runoff to be anyone’s call, though clearly Ossoff is in a better position than Handel,” Survey USA analysts concluded.

 

The poll brings more even more bad news for Karen Handel, who has aligned herself with Donald Trump. More than half of respondents have an unfavorable view of Trump, a plurality disapprove of Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, and 60 percent believe a special investigator should be named to look into Russian interference in America’s elections. Handel will also campaign with Vice President Mike Pence on June 9th.

 

To date, Karen Handel has only agreed to appear at a single debate, recently declining a Dunwoody community debate after learning it would be open to the public.

 

 

 

Written by PNM Admin · Categorized: Uncategorized · Tagged: Jon Ossoff, Karen Handel

Apr 26 2017

Karen Handel to Profit from Fundraiser Hosted by Donald Trump Because Karen Handel

Atlanta, GA – What do you get when you pair a self-centered vanity candidate always on the lookout for a get-rich-quick scheme with another self-centered vanity candidate always on the lookout for a get-rich-quick scheme? A Karen Handel fundraiser hosted by Donald Trump.

This Friday, Donald Trump will spend the day in Atlanta, capping off his trip with a high dollar fundraiser for Karen Handel. Barely limping in to the 6th Congressional District runoff and disliked by members of her own party, Handel is now reliant upon national Republicans to fund a campaign that has perpetually teetered on the edge of irrelevance. Further illustrating the GOP’s scramble to buy voters’ love, the Congressional Leadership Fund—a super PAC aligned with House Republicans—announced Wednesday it was spending another $3.5 million dollars in Georgia ahead of the June runoff.

“National Republicans are trying to buy another seat in Congress—essentially buying another ‘Yes’ vote to take away Georgians’ health care and cut taxes for the rich. But all the money in the world won’t expunge perpetual politician Karen Handel’s record of misusing taxpayer dollars as Secretary of State. And it certainly won’t buy the enthusiasm and energy we’re seeing in the Democratic Party.” – Michael Smith, Communications Director

For years, Karen Handel has been mired in scandal for misuse of tax dollars. While serving as Secretary of State, Handel chose a $587-per-month taxpayer-funded allowance for a luxury SUV over the standard state car. During what was dubbed as Georgia’s “greatest budget crisis since the Great Depression,” Handel suggested spending between $15,000 and $18,000 of tax dollars on new chairs.

As Secretary of State, Handel fired 40 workers yet found room in the budget to spend $13,500 in travel in 2008 and 2009 alone. In fact, Handel’s personal office budget rose by 42 percent as Secretary Of State. But the habit of looking out for herself at the expense of others was nothing new at that point, as her personal office budget rose by 43 percent while serving as Fulton County Commissioner.

###

Written by PNM Admin · Categorized: Georgia Republicans, Press Releases · Tagged: 6th Congressional District, Donald Trump, Flip the 6th, Karen Handel

Apr 25 2017

With GOP Cavalry Descending on Georgia, Karen Handel Must Own Devastating Cuts to Medicare

Release:  Tuesday, April 25, 2017                                                                            

Atlanta, GA – After a humiliating show at the polls on April 18, career politician Karen Handel is calling on the GOP political cavalry to fabricate enthusiasm for the perpetual candidate ahead of the June runoff. Handel limped to the runoff with an embarrassing 19.78% of votes cast, despite being well known, close to 30% (54,397 votes) behind Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff.

Handel’s distress signal has been answered by fellow career politician House Speaker Paul Ryan, who is notorious for his reckless and cold-hearted plan to end the Medicare guarantee for senior citizens. Ryan’s intervention in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District race follows the massive defeat of his attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act.

“Career politician Karen Handel has made clear she will not be an independent voice for the district and supports Speaker Ryan’s ideological plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program and cut Medicaid. In her blind personal quest to hold office, it is troubling that Handel apparently has no issue ending the Medicare guarantee for Georgia’s seniors, or cutting services to nursing homes.” – Michael Smith, Communications Director

The GOP’s plan to replace essential health care programs with voucher programs would be devastating to Georgia families. 1,782,301Georgians (17% of the population) are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP programs. 1,253,841 children and 137,671 seniors and people with disabilities are covered by Medicaid and Medicare programs.

The consequences for Georgia’s seniors are staggering. Per the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities:  “An overwhelming majority of Medicare beneficiaries who live in nursing homes rely on Medicaid for their nursing home coverage.  Because the Ryan plan would require such deep cuts in federal Medicaid funding, it would inevitably result in less coverage for nursing home residents and shift more of the cost of nursing home care to elderly beneficiaries and their families.  A sharp reduction in the quality of nursing home care would be virtually inevitable, due to the large reduction that would occur in the resources made available to pay for such care.”

###

Background

PPP – Democrats Have Big Enthusiasm Edge for 2018

-The strong early numbers for Democrats in the 2018 Congressional picture aren’t just a function of Trump’s unpopularity. Both Paul Ryan (30/53 approval) and Mitch McConnell (24/48) are very unpopular on the national scene as well. Overall Congress has just an 18% approval rating, with 65% of voters disapproving of it.

–One issue that particularly sunk Ryan’s numbers was health care, and we continue to find less and less resistance to just keeping the Affordable Care Act. We find 47% support for it on this poll, but more notable than that we find the level of opposition to it down to only 31%. Even among Republican voters there’s now barely a majority- 51%- that expresses opposition to the ACA. Just 30% of voters want to repeal it, compared to 62% who say the best path forward is to keep what works in it and fix what doesn’t.

Census.gov

Medicaid.gov

Written by PNM Admin · Categorized: Georgia Democrats, Georgia Republicans, Press Releases · Tagged: Jon Ossoff, Karen Handel, Medicaid, Medicare, Paul Ryan

  • Your Party
  • Latest News
  • Voter Protection
  • Events
  • Take Action
  • Careers
  • Store
  • Contact Us
Georgia Democrats

©2019 Democratic Party of Georgia
P.O. Box 89202, Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 889-6528‬‬

Privacy Policy

Paid for by the Democratic Party of Georgia. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.