{"id":1684205,"date":"2022-10-11T18:17:51","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684205"},"modified":"2022-10-11T18:19:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T22:19:27","slug":"georgia-democrats-vote-to-keep-election-software-at-center-of-chinese-data-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-democrats-vote-to-keep-election-software-at-center-of-chinese-data-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Democrats Vote To Keep Election Software At Center Of Chinese Data Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgeorgia-democrats-vote-to-keep-election-software-at-center-of-chinese-data-controversy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1684205&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>After news broke last week that the CEO of elections software company, Konnech, was arrested by the L.A. County District Attorney on <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/06\/tech-firm-told-the-fbi-it-didnt-store-u-s-poll-workers-data-on-chinese-servers-as-l-a-da-alleges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suspicion of theft of personal information charges<\/a>, municipalities across the country have ended their contract with the firm.<\/p>\n<p>But oddly, DeKalb County, Georgia, has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/neighborhoods\/dekalb\/dekalb-to-keep-controversial-elections-software-move-poll-worker-data\/HLSRTSCWBFGSTD4ON6TNCM66JU\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">decided to keep<\/a> its relationship with Konnech. In a 3-2 party-line vote on Monday, the DeKalb County Elections Board voted to maintain its contract with Konnech \u2014 on the condition that poll worker data be hosted on the county\u2019s servers instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DeKalb signed a one-year contract for Konnech\u2019s PollChief software just last month. PollChief provides an online portal that allows election staff to manage, train, and pay poll workers. Poll workers must set up an account on the portal to gain access to training. That means Konnech has access to poll workers\u2019 names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, financials, and passwords on their servers, creating a string of sensitive, personally identifiable information (PII) for each poll worker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost people are not conscientious about their passwords,\u201d Marci McCarthy, chairman of the DeKalb Republican Party, told The Federalist. \u201cSo, you are giving an alleged data thief the credentials, perhaps to your bank account, email, or social media. It doesn\u2019t take much to use someone\u2019s personal email address and the password they use to log into another account.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kenneth\u2019s access to such data is why L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon arrested Konnech CEO Eugene Yu for allegedly storing confidential poll worker information on servers located in the People\u2019s Republic of China, in contradiction of Konnech\u2019s contract with L.A. County.\u00a0(A day prior to Yu\u2019s arrest, The New York Times wrote a lengthy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/10\/03\/technology\/konnech-election-conspiracy-theories.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">puff piece<\/a> praising the Konnech CEO while labeling anyone who expressed concerns over the company\u2019s potential connections to China an \u201celection denier.\u201d The next day, the paper of record had to issue an embarrassing <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/05\/nyt-pretends-to-debunk-poll-worker-conspiracy-one-day-later-the-election-deniers-were-vindicated\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">correction<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>By keeping its contract with Konnech, McCarthy believes DeKalb County is risking a class action lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeKalb County is custodian of all its employees\u2019 data, yet it cannot guarantee that this data has not already been compromised,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cThey have to prove that their data has not been promised. DeKalb\u2019s own contract with Konnech says they cannot store data outside of the United States. If DeKalb is knowingly continuing with a contract that allegedly stores poll worker data outside of the country, then they are complicit in an accessory to a data theft con.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While DeKalb County says it will be storing poll worker data on a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/neighborhoods\/dekalb\/dekalb-to-keep-controversial-elections-software-move-poll-worker-data\/HLSRTSCWBFGSTD4ON6TNCM66JU\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DeKalb County-controlled Microsoft Azure Government<\/a>\u201d server, William Quinn, a Georgia resident with a background in business and I.T., is skeptical of Azure\u2019s security.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs I understand it, the [Azure\u2019s] server could exist really anywhere across the country, sometimes around the world. Does that really increase security?\u201d Quinn told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Azure does not warranty PollChief. At the bottom of DeKalb\u2019s poll worker <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.office.com\/Pages\/ResponsePage.aspx?id=J1UtKf-r_0W8krHbEDdge-0aYm9wcsRHkgVsJkMoKEdUOEFQRjJIUlVKUkc0SUJXMzU1WlA4QkVSOCQlQCN0PWcu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">application<\/a> on the PollChief portal, there\u2019s a Disclaimer that states Azure is not liable for poll worker\u2019s data.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis content is created by the owner of the form. The data you submit will be sent to the form owner. Microsoft is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of its customers, including those of this form owner. Never give out your password,\u201d the Disclaimer reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite such questions being raised during the special meeting held by the DeKalb County Board of Elections, board members disregarded citizen concerns and voted to keep their contract with Konnech.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am astounded and outraged that our Democrats here in DeKalb County have disregarded our poll workers\u2019 cyber safety,\u201d McCarthy said. <\/p>\n<p>In the wake of Yu\u2019s arrest, the city of <a href=\"https:\/\/wdet.org\/2022\/10\/07\/detroit-terminates-contract-with-election-software-company-named-in-data-breach-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Detroit, Michigan<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/11\/fairfax-county-virginia-terminates-relationship-with-software-company-caught-storing-poll-worker-data-in-china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fairfax County, Virginia<\/a>, have terminated their contract with Konnech.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. Her writing has been featured in the New York Post, National Review, and Townhall. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After news broke last week that the CEO of elections software company, Konnech, was arrested by the L.A. County District Attorney on suspicion of theft of personal information charges, municipalities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1130,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1684205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}