IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF FULTON COUNTY
STATE OF GEORGIA
ELISE PIPER and YVETTE NANCY
SANDERS, Individually and on
behalf of Georgia voters similarly
situated,
Plaintiffs,
v.
BRIAN KEMP, IN HIS OFFICIAL
CAPACITY AS SECRETARY OF
STATE FOR THE STATE OF
GEORGIA,
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) CIVIL ACTION
) FILE NO. 2015CV268170
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Defendant.
FIRST AMENDED CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR
RELIEF PURSUANT TO THE GEORGIA PERSONAL IDENTITY
PROTECTION ACT OF 2007 (O.C.G.A. §§ 10-1-910 TO 10-1-912) ON
BEHALF OF A CLASS OF APPROXIMATELY 6,000,000 REGISTERED
GEORGIA VOTERS
Plaintiffs Elise Piper and Yvette Nancy Sanders, on behalf of themselves
and the other approximately 6,184,281 registered Georgia voters similarly
situated, file this First Amended Class Action Complaint against Brian P. Kemp in
his official capacity as Georgia’s Secretary of State (“Defendant”) for the Secretary
of State’s willful violations of Georgia’s Personal Identity Protection Act of 2007
(the “Act”).
Specifically, Plaintiffs challenge Defendant’s unauthorized disclosure of
voters’ personal identifying information and Defendant’s failure to provide the
required statutory notice of the breaches of security that occurred after his office
released voters’ personal identifying information to certain members of the media,
political parties and other unauthorized person. The personal identifying
information included the social security numbers, dates of birth, and driver’s
license numbers of over 6,000,000 million of Georgia’s registered voters. Kemp
has not notified a single Georgia citizen that his or her information may have been
compromised. Nor has he notified any consumer reporting agencies about the
breach that could compromise “the security, confidentiality, or integrity of
personal information” of each Georgia voter as required under Georgia law.
PARTIES
1. Plaintiff Elise Piper is a natural person and a registered voter in the
State of Georgia at all times relevant to this Complaint.
2. Plaintiff Yvette Nancy Sanders is a natural person and a registered
voter in the State of Georgia at all times relevant to this Complaint
3. Defendant Brian P. Kemp is sued in his official capacity as Georgia’s
Secretary of State. The Secretary of State is Georgia’s chief election
official. O.C.G.A. § 21-2-50(b). The Secretary of State is, among
other things, responsible for performing the duties imposed under
Georgia’s electoral laws.
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4. One of these duties is to “maintain the official list of registered voters
for this state.” O.C.G.A. § 21-2-50(a)(14). In the performance of his
electoral duties, the Secretary of State collects certain “personal
information” of all registered voters. O.C.G.A. § 10-1-911(6)
5. This list is not maintained by the Secretary of State for “traffic safety,
law enforcement, or licensing purposes.” O.C.G.A. § 10-1-911(3).
6. The data is to be compiled through the voter registration application
process.
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7. While the application only requests the last four digits of a voter’s
social security number, for some reason the Secretary of State
maintains each voter’s complete social security number and driver’s
license number. It is unclear how all of this information has been
collected and why the complete social security number of each voter
is maintained, if it is not required at the time of registration.
8. It is this unauthorized disclosure of voters’ personal information that
form the basis of this Class Action Complaint.
JURISDICTION AND VENUE
9. Because this Class Action seeks equitable relief, venue is proper
where the defendant, against whom substantial relief is prayed,
resides. Ga. Const. Art. VI, § II, Para. III.
10. The principal office of the Secretary of State’s Elections Divisions is
located at 2 MLK Jr. Drive, Suite 802, Atlanta, Fulton County,
Georgia, 30334, as such, jurisdiction and venue are proper in this
Court.
FACTS COMMON TO THE CLASS
11. In his official role as the Secretary of State, Defendant maintains the
official list of registered voters for the State. O.C.G.A. § 21-250(a)(14).
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12. This list is frequently known as Georgia’s “Voter File.” The Secretary
of State’s office distributes the Voter File monthly to certain members
of the media and the political parties, who are exempted from paying
for the Voter File.
13. The Voter File is commonly used by candidates running for office to
identify and target potential voters in their respective political
districts. The only information that is to be included in the Voter File
is the voter name, residential address, mailing address if different,
race, gender, registration date and last voting date. See Exhibit 1.
14. Additionally, any citizen can obtain the Voter File if he or she is
willing to pay a fee of approximately $500. See Exhibit 1 and 2.
15. The Voter File normally includes the registered voter’s full name and
address, but no other identifying or personal information.
16. In addition to the information available in the Voter File, Kemp also
maintains the social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and
dates of birth of all registered Georgia voters.
17. As a matter of course, the Secretary of State’s office distributes an
updated Voter File to media outlets, political parties, and others
monthly. The updated Voter File is also made available to the public.
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18. Upon information and belief, at some point in mid-October, the
Secretary of State distributed the monthly CD containing the Voter
File for registered voters as of October 13, 2015 via United States
mail. The CDs were bubble wrapped and notated to contain election
material from the Secretary of State. Handwritten on the CD was a
notation that the CD contained the “GA Statewide File” with the date
of October 13, 2015.
19. Upon information and belief, the CD was received by certain
members of the media, the political parties and others at some point
after October 13, 2015. Upon receipt, it was discovered that the Voter
File not only included the names and addresses of Georgia’s
6,184,281 registered voters, it now also disclosed the social security
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number, driver’s license number, and date of birth for these 6,184,281
registered voters. The following is a true and accurate screenshot
taken of the number of voter files contained on the October 13, 2015
CD.
20. Plaintiff Elise Piper was one of these 6,184,281 voters whose
information was compromised. The following is a true and accurate
screenshot taken of Plaintiff Piper’s unsecured personal information
contained on the October 13, 2015 CD.
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21. Plaintiff Yvette Nancy Sanders was one of these 6,184,281 voters
whose information was compromised. The following is a true and
accurate screenshot taken of Plaintiff Sanders’s unsecured personal
information contained on the October 13, 2015 CD.
22. The Secretary of State’s office has been made aware of the breach but
has failed to inform the recipients of the CD about the sensitive nature
of the information contained on the October 13, 2015 CD; has failed
to secure the copies of the CDs containing the personal information;
and has failed to give notice to the registered voters whose
information has been unlawfully distributed.
CLASS ACTION ALLEGATIONS
23. Plaintiffs bring this action pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 9-11-23(b)(2) and
O.C.G.A. § 9-11-23(b)(2) on behalf of themselves and a Class defined
as follows:
All registered voters of the State of Georgia as of October 13,
2015, whose private and personal information, including social
security numbers, birth dates, and driver’s license numbers were
released by the Secretary of State's office to unauthorized
individuals.
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24. Numerosity: The Class is composed of all individuals registered to
vote in the state of Georgia as of October 13, 2015. It is impracticable
to join the approximately 6,000,000 registered voters affected by the
breach.
25. Commonality: There are many questions of law and fact common to
the claims of Plaintiffs and the Class, and those questions predominate
over any questions that may affect individual members of the Class.
Common questions for the Class include, but are not limited to the
following:
a. whether and when Defendant suffered a "breach of [its] security
system" as defined by O.C.G.A. § 10-1-911 and disclosed the
social security numbers, dates of birth, and driver’s license
numbers of Georgia’s registered voters;
b. whether Defendant notified any members of the Class as
required by O.C.G.A. § 10-1-912 that their personal and private
information had been acquired by unauthorized individuals; and
c. the proper measure of any equitable relief including but not
limited to the placement of security freezes with consumer
reporting agencies for each affected registered voter.
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26. Typicality: Plaintiffs’ claims are typical of the claims of other
members of the Class, as Plaintiffs and other members of the Class
suffered the same type of harm and could sustain similar damages
arising out of Defendant's failure to comply with Georgia’s Personal
Identity Protection Act of 2007.
27. Adequate Representation: Plaintiffs will fairly and adequately
represent and protect the interests of the Class, and have retained
counsel competent and experienced in complex class actions.
Plaintiffs are a member of the Class, Plaintiffs have no interest
antagonistic to any other members of the Class, and Defendant has no
defenses unique to Plaintiffs.
28. Predominance, Superiority and Manageability: This Class Action is
appropriate for certification because class proceedings are superior to
all other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of
this controversy.
29. Individual prosecution of this matter in separate actions is not
desirable.
30. Individual litigation of this matter would unduly increase expenses to
all parties and prolong efficient adjudication given that all individuals
face the imminent risk of harm because of the disclosure of their
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personal identifying information and by Defendant's failure to notify
them of the unauthorized disclosure as required by O.C.G.A. § 10-1912.
31. There is no other litigation concerning this controversy that has
already been commenced by or against members of the class.
Furthermore, a class action presents far fewer management difficulties
than individual suits and is superior.
32. Class membership is readably identifiable as it is simply all registered
voters in the State of Georgia as of October 13, 2015. A class action
will foster economies of time, effort, and expense and uniformity of
decisions will be ensured.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs Elise Piper and Yvette Nancy Sanders,
individually and on behalf of the Class, pray for the following relief:
A. An order certifying the Class as defined above, appointing Plaintiffs,
Elise Piper and Yvette Nancy Sanders as the representatives of the
Class, and appointing undersigned counsel as Class Counsel;
B. Equitable relief requiring Defendant to provide proper notice pursuant
to O.C.G.A. § 10-1-912;
C. Equitable relief to prevent future disclosures of personal or private
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information or to prevent future breaches of the security of
Defendant's system as defined by O.C.G.A. § 10-1-911 and any
equitable relief necessary to prevent harm due to the disclosure;
D. An award of reasonable attorneys' fees and costs; and
E. Such further and other relief as the Court deems reasonable and just.
JURY TRIAL
Plaintiffs demand a trial by jury for all issues so triable.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this 17th day of November, 2015.
BY: /s/Jennifer Auer Jordan
JENNIFER AUER JORDAN
Georgia Bar No. 027857
WAYNE M. CARTWRIGHT
Georgia Bar No. 257328
ATTORNEY FOR PLAINTIFFS
SHAMP SPEED JORDAN WOODWARD
1718 Peachtree Street, N.W.
Suite 660
Atlanta, Georgia 30309
T: (404) 893-9400
F: (404) 260-4180
jordan@ssjwlaw.com
cartwright@ssjwlaw.com
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11/13/2015
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III. Political parties’ and bodies’ exemption from costs: So that political organizations may provide the information contained within the statewide voter registration database
service in-house certain customer requests regarding the voter registration database. refreshes daily the OSOS copy of voter registration database. In light of the new technology services and to reduce customer costs, the OSOS is revising procedures to
through the OSOS to GTA. The GTA costs billed to the OSOS associated with the retrieval of this data are significant. Now, to maintain certain on-line voter services, GTA
OSOS did not maintain a copy (in the format required by purchasers) of the current voter registration database and any requests for such list or variations thereof were made
II. Historical background: The Georgia Technology Authority (GTA) maintains the mainframe computer system that stores the voter registration database. Previously, the
data.
I. Authorizing authority: Pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 21-2-225 (c), the Office of the Secretary of State (OSOS) is directed to establish a cost to be charged for voter registration
Voter Registration Database Pricing Policy (Adopted June 17, 2003):
§21-2-225 (c))
gender, registration date and last voting date. Pricing is set by the Secretary of State's Office. Such data may not be used by any person for commercial purposes. (O.C.G.A.
Voter registration lists and files are available to the public. The files contain the following information: voter name, residential address, mailing address if different, race,
Exhibit 1
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order voter registration lists and files
to their candidates and thereby greatly reduce inquiries made to the Election Division, the OSOS shall continue to provide copies of the statewide voter registration database
once a month to any state political party or political body at no cost. IV. Media outlets exemption from costs: In the spirit and interest of disseminating public information, the OSOS reserves the right to waive costs for bona fide media
organizations and their designated outlets.
V. Statewide voter registration database: The OSOS, through its Information Technology department, currently maintains a copy of the statewide voter list that is current as
of the prior business day. Because this information is now available without requesting the information from GTA, we shall provide this information at the substantially
reduced rate of $500.00 per digital copy on CD-ROM. Note: Under this new price plan, we shall not provide files "as of" a certain day since “as of” files are not kept by the OSOS. The only database copy retained by the OSOS is
the statewide voter registration list which is refreshed each business day. Any “as of” requests shall be processed and charged as a custom voter registration list. VI. Custom Voter Registration Lists: A custom voter registration list includes the following types of lists: a list of the registered voters in a particular county, precinct, State or
Federal House district, State Senate district, or any other specialized list requiring sorting, filtering, or other manipulation of the statewide list. Pending the development of
an automated system for producing these lists from the OSOS copy of the statewide database, we will continue to request these files from GTA on behalf of our customers.
The cost to be charged for electronic files shall be based the cost charged to the OSOS by GTA to produce the file.
VII. Costs and fees charged for paper or electronic data lists: Any and all costs or fees charged for paper or electronic voter registration lists or data files are non-refundable. The sole remedy for non-delivery of or “damaged” voter registration lists or data files is replacement of the original order. Purchaser must provide immediate notification of
non-delivery or damage to the original order. Any changes to purchaser’s original order will require additional payment pursuant to the Voter Registration Database Pricing
Policy. New or alternate files will not be created because an election event has occurred or the data is no longer relevant to the purchaser.
Prior to acceptance and processing of any order, purchaser must remit payment for all charges in the form of a valid check or money order. No other form of payment is
accepted. All payments shall be paid to the order of “GA Secretary of State.” Purchaser will be assessed a fee of $40.00 for any returned checks. Starter checks not accepted.
Purchaser is responsible for submitting orders with sufficient time for production and shipping of data prior to an election related event. Requests received by 4:00 PM on
Friday and confirmed by this office will be processed and shipped via U.S. Postal Mail by close of business on the following Tuesday. The Secretary of State is not responsible
for lost shipments or delays by regular U.S. Postal Mail. Expedited shipping and/or tracking is available upon request for an additional fee.
Purchaser is responsible for having any necessary software and computer-related skills necessary to process the electronic data file. Disputes regarding electronic files must
be submitted within 5 business days of receiving the CD-Rom. In the unlikely event that a purchaser believes a CD-Rom is unreadable or blank, purchaser must return the
CD-Rom to this office prior to filing and processing a claim. Tracking of a returned CD-Rom is suggested, as proof of delivery that the original CD-Rom has been returned to
the Secretary of State may be requested in order to process a claim. The sole remedy in any case is replacement of the original order. http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/order_voter_registration_lists_and_files
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Voter History Files are available for download free of charge. History files are zipped, fixed-length text files organized by election year.
You will need a voter file in order to associate a voter with his/her voter history. The voter and history files both contain the voter registration number, and can be linked on
this field.
http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/order_voter_registration_lists_and_files
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Voter Absentee File - File of current absentee voters for the upcoming election, available for free download.
Electronic files may be ordered through the Office of Secretary of State. Statewide voter files must be ordered directly through the Office of Secretary of State. For your
convenience we have provided a link to the voter list order form.
Voter List Order Form - PDF © 2012 Georgia Secretary of State
E-Mail
404.656.2881
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
214 State Capitol
CONTACT
For more information on voter lists/files, please send an email to electionshelpdesk@sos.ga.gov with the subject “Voter List Files.” OFFICE OF BRIAN KEMP
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRESS & MEDIA KIT
PRIVACY POLICY
http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/order_voter_registration_lists_and_files
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Secretary of State
EXHIBIT 2
Elections Division
2 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Suite 802 - West Tower Atlanta, GA 30334-1505
VOTER LIST ORDER FORM
DATE: ___________________________________________________________
NAME: ____________________________________________________________
SHIPPING ADDRESS: (Please note that all orders will be sent via USPS standard mail.)
Text
EMAIL ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________
CONTACT PERSON: _________________________________________________
CONTACT PHONE: __________________________________________________
NOTE: All lists will be delivered on a CD.
FOR COUNTY USE ONLY– Payment Only ____ County provided list by (list county name) ________________
Check____________
Money Order____________
Check/Money Order Number_______________
Amount__________
Date Payment Mailed__________________
Access http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/order_voter_registration_lists_and_files for list prices, etc. Electronic
file only includes date last voted for each registered voter. Contact us via email at kreaves@sos.ga.gov with any
questions. Normal production time is 2-3 days upon receipt of payment. Please make check or money order payable to
Secretary of State. The electronic file is a CSV file and can be opened in Microsoft Excel.
Description of Order (Please select one:
Active Voters
Active and Inactive Voters)
(Please include a detailed description of your request including county and/or municipality.)
Warning: In accordance with O.C.G.A. §21-2-601, any person who uses the list of electors
for commercial purposes shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Signature
Rev 10-29-2015
provided for in §21-2-225