Website that warned of cyberattack in Georgia is closed after confusing some voters

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Warnings of an “unexpected computer outage” on the elections website in Georgia’s most populous county sparked alarm on social media Tuesday about possible problems with the state’s presidential primary, concerns that election officials quickly dispelled.

A red banner on county websites warning of a “system outage” was actually related to a January cyberattack that temporarily paralyzed government services in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta. Officials said it did not indicate any problems with Tuesday’s vote.

“Today has passed without incident or setbacks,” Secretary of Government, Republican Brad Raffensperger, told reporters during an afternoon press conference.

Some users of X, formerly Twitter, wondered if the notice was a sign of a “glitch” or “cheating” in the primary elections. Others wondered if it indicated trouble at the polls.

The banner had been posted on the county’s websites well before the final day of primary voting and warned of an “unexpected computer outage currently affecting multiple systems.” It directed visitors to a March 4 update on the cyberattack and the progress the county has made to restore services.

Fulton County removed the warning banner from its website, including the elections page, following concern on social media. What remained was another directing voters to find their assigned polling location or check wait times.

“Although the alert had been in effect since late January, we learned today that it was causing potential confusion for voters,” Fulton County spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt said in an email. “Fulton County is committed to ensuring our voters have access to accurate and timely information, and will always seek to prevent and address misinformation.”

Election officials in Georgia, particularly in Fulton County, are especially sensitive to questions about the voting process or the fairness of voting. It was one of the states where former President Donald Trump contested his narrow loss to Joe Biden in 2020 and where he and others face criminal charges for trying to overturn the results. Conspiracy theories have also led to death threats against some Fulton County election workers.

The county previously told The Associated Press that there was no indication that election systems were the target of the cyberattack, but that technology systems at Fulton County and the Secretary of State’s Office were isolated from each other as a precaution.

Corbitt said Tuesday that the investigation into the cyberattack “is ongoing” and that he could not comment on what data may have been affected.

Aside from the confusion caused by the warning banner, Georgia’s Secretary of Government reported that it had observed only minor problems during Tuesday’s vote. Gabriel Sterling, the department’s director of operations, said two precincts would remain open past their scheduled closing time because they had opened late.

One was in Cobb County, where poll workers did not have the keypad code, and the other was in Gwinnett County, where an elections administrator had been trying to fix a printer.

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