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Kemp's claim that Democrats hacked state election site not true, report finds

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp

Gov. Brian Kemp charged late in the 2018 campaign, when he was still secretary of state, that Democrats had hacked into Georgia's election websites. An investigation unveiled this week found that the charge was not true.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

A sensational charge levied by Republican Brian Kemp during his savage but successful campaign for governor of Georgia against Democrat Stacey Abrams has not yielded any criminal charges.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, also a Republican, issued a three-page memo on Monday stating he did not find evidence to back Kemp's claim two years ago that Democrats had hacked into the computer system of the secretary of state, the position Kemp held when he ran.

He defeated Abrams by 54,000 votes out of 3.9 million cast, a margin of less than 1.5 points, and Democrats said Kemp's claim was one of his many ploys to gain political advantage — along with what they view as a multifaceted campaign of voter suppression


The claim originated from a report made by Georgia businessman Richard Wright that several election-related pages on the secretary of state's website were vulnerable to an enemy cyber invasion. Those claims were passed to a volunteer with the state Democratic Party and ended up in Kemp's office, which prompted his allegation.

But investigations of Wright's claims found them not to be accurate. While the web pages had been vulnerable, such problems had been fixed.

Did anyone actually hack the site? Prior intrusions into the site were actually cybersecurity tests conducted by the federal Department of Homeland Security, which had been contracted by Kemp's office to do the work.

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Independent Voters Just Got Power in Nevada – if the Governor Lets It Happen

"On Las Vegas Boulevard" sign.

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash. Unplash+ license obtained by IVN Editor Shawn Griffiths.

Independent Voters Just Got Power in Nevada – if the Governor Lets It Happen

CARSON CITY, NEV. - A surprise last-minute bill to open primary elections to Nevada’s largest voting bloc, registered unaffiliated voters, moved quickly through the state legislature and was approved by a majority of lawmakers on the last day of the legislative session Monday.

The bill, AB597, allows voters not registered with a political party to pick between a Republican and Democratic primary ballot in future election cycles. It does not apply to the state’s presidential preference elections, which would remain closed to registered party members.

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Voter registration

In April 2025, the SAVE Act has been reintroduced in the 119th Congress and passed the House, with a much stronger chance of becoming law given the current political landscape.

SDI Productions

The SAVE Act: Addressing a Non-Existent Problem at the Cost of Voter Access?

In July 2024, I wrote about the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act when it was first introduced in Congress. And Sarah and I discussed it in an episode of Beyond the Bill Number which you can still listen to. Now, in April 2025, the SAVE Act has been reintroduced in the 119th Congress and passed the House, with a much stronger chance of becoming law given the current political landscape. It's time to revisit this legislation and examine its implications for American voters.

Read the IssueVoter analysis of the bill here for further insight and commentary.

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Independent Voters Gain Ground As New Mexico Opens Primaries
person in blue denim jeans and white sneakers standing on gray concrete floor
Photo by Phil Scroggs on Unsplash

Independent Voters Gain Ground As New Mexico Opens Primaries

With the stroke of a pen, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham enfranchised almost 350,000 independent voters recently by signing a bill for open primaries. Just a few years ago, bills to open the primaries were languishing in the state legislature, as they have historically across the country. But as more and more voters leave both parties and declare their independence, the political system is buckling. And as independents begin to organize and speak out, it’s going to continue to buckle in their direction.

In 2004, there were 120,000 independent voters in New Mexico. A little over 10 years later, when the first open primary bill was introduced, that number had more than doubled. That bill never even got a hearing. But today the number of independents in New Mexico and across the country is too big to ignore. Independents are the largest group of voters in ten states and the second-largest in most others. That’s putting tremendous pressure on a system that wasn’t designed with them in mind.

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"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

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