Georgians Asked to Watch Out for Voting Fraud

Ga. Secretary of State Brian Kemp told the Buckhead Businesss Association Thursday morning that anyone seeing incidents of voter fraud in the Nov. 8 election can notify his department's Stop Voter Fraud web site.

One of his office’s primary duties is to "make sure Georgia continues to have safe, secure and honest elections," he said.

Kemp said that a person who sees someone try to buy a vote, intimidate a voter or campaign too close to a poll can email or call his department, and an investigator would respond in as little as an hour. Use the web site's e-mail form or call the hotline at 877-725-9797. He said the department would also accept cellphone photographs of such incidents.

He said "a lot of that goes on" in Georgia, with the State Elections Board at its meetings considering "40 to 50 cases of potential voting fraud."

His department's My Voter Page provides a wealth of information for voters, he said. A voter can go into the page, enter an initial and last name and place of residence, and find out where his or her precinct is, as well as print out a sample ballot, he said. Voters using the My Voter Page can study the ballot before going to the polls and spending time studying the ballot there.

"This is a great tool to help educate voters and also speed up the process on Election Day," he said.

Another innovation, he said, is allowing Ga. military personnel and other Georgia citizens living in foreign countries to print out a ballot online. Previously, he said such citizens had to request a ballot by mail, and wait for it to be sent. Now, a person can go on the secretary of state's office Web site and print out an "electronic ballot" and then mail it back.

Georgia's Legislature with bipartisan cooperation was one of the first states to launch this type of system, he said, adding that his office "did it with our IT staff, at no cost to taxpayers."

Georgia's presidential preference primary date of March 6 should have benefits for the state, he said. In the last election, Georgia's primary was on the same date as delegate rich California's and New York's, and candidates did not campaign here, he said.

March 6 will also be the date of Virginia's and Tennessee's primaries, and Kemp said that the closeness of those states will help bring attention to Georgia.

"That really bodes well for us in Georgia to have candidates come and campaign in Georgia, which we haven't had," he said.

He also said that state officials are "very optimistic about our chances of landing a nationally publicized and televised debate."

Turning his attention to his office's business services, he said that the number of new corporations being registered is rising in 2011 after a slump in recent years. He said that's not necessarily a sign of an economic rebound, because laid-off people might be starting small businesses such as a lawn service. but "the consistency of new people starting new businesses every month certainly bodes well for the future."

He said he's going beyond the secretary of state's normal duties to work on economic development. He's also working to help small businesses connect with each other and to bigger corporations like Delta, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Another role is to help businesses look for capital resources.

"We need confidence back," he said. "It's very hard for people to make decisions when they don't feel good about it."