About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2020)
■ • •• * New Gainesville skate park a hit with old and young. OUR REGION, 1B A SPECIAL SECTION ON CANCER AWARENESS Celebrating Journeys mt (ttin fs Sb 9 Hear cancer survivors’ stories of road to recovery. INSIDE, 1D Chestatee’s Gaddis gearing up for run at individual, team state championship in cross country. SPORTS, 12B Weekend Edition - OCTOBER 17-18, 2020 | $2.001 GAINESVILLE, GEORGIA | gainesvilletimes.com Honestly Local Ballots have ‘many checks, balances’ Hall election director says absentee voting process is very secure BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Long part of the voting pro cess in America, absentee and mail-in voting is coming under serious scrutiny this election year. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted for voters that they have several options in cast ing ballots. They can mail in an absentee ballot, vote early at a designated polling location or vote in person at their precinct on Election Day, Nov. 3. The options, particularly To vote absentee Completed absentee ballot applications can be submitted several ways: ■ Mail to Hall County Elections, PO Box 1435, Gainesville, GA 30503 ■ Fax to 770-531 -3931 ■ Email to elections@hallcounty.org ■ Place in the drop box outside the Hall County Government Center, 2875 Browns Bridge Road, Gainesville mailing in ballots, have raised concerns nationally about voter fraud and whether some races — particularly the presidential one —can be decided in a timely manner. “Voter fraud is very, very rare,” said Nathan Price, politi cal science assistant professor at the University of North Georgia. “We know this from studying it in political science. I think peo ple imagine that it is much more ■ Please see BALLOTS, 7A An official Ga. absentee ballot. The last day for a voter to request an absentee ballot, and the last day for the elections office to mail out absentee ballots, is Friday, Oct. 30 by 5 p.m. SHANNON CASAS The Times ‘Adapt and overcome’ THOMAS HARTWELL I The Times Katie Greenway, planner I at the Hall County Planning Department, works at her desk on Oct. 16. Hall County departments have had to adjust their processes as they recover from a ransomware attack that took place on Oct. 7. County adjusts to keep services going after ransomware attack BY MEGAN REED mreed@gainesvilletimes.com With some phone, email and software outages over the past week after a ran somware attack, Hall County government has been doing some things the old-fash ioned way. However, many services, including phone and email, had returned as of Fri day, Oct. 16. The county’s 911 operations were not affected. “The county will always do everything it can to provide services. We’re doing that in a more manual environment, and it being 2020, that means we’ve had to adapt and overcome our dependency on software,” Assistant County Administra tor Zach Propes said Thursday. “But our staff, our (management and information systems) staff, our emergency manage ment staff and all staff throughout the county have really stepped up, stepped forward and tried to expedite the recov ery phase.” A ransomware attack on county networks was discovered Oct. 7, shut ting down phone and email operations. Propes declined to comment on the coun ty’s investigation into the ransomware attack Thursday but said officials do not believe personal or confidential informa tion was compromised. The county’s financial services depart ment now has access to its software to track revenues and expenses, issue vendor checks and process payroll for employees, Propes said. The human resources department posts job openings through an external software that has ■ Please see PLANNING, 6A Audit: UNG inaccurately reported crime stats BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com An audit by the U.S. Department of Educa tion’s Office of Inspector General said the Uni versity of North Georgia “did not have effective controls to ensure that it reported complete and accurate Clery Act crime statistics. ” “North Georgia’s reported Clery Act crime statistics for calendar years 2015-2017 were not complete and accurate,” according to the audit report released Sept. 11. “As a result, the statistics did not provide reliable information to current and prospective students, their families and other members of the campus community for making decisions about personal safety and security.” The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Secu rity Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act was signed into law in 1990 to make public universi ties and colleges release crime statistics. The law was named after Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in 1986, according to the Clery Center. University spokeswoman Sylvia Carson said the inspector general’s office began routine Clery Act audits in 2019 of many colleges and universities that included UNG. The audit found some under reporting in 2015- 2017 due to “inadvertent technical errors,” Car- son said. “UNG began a proactive review of its public safety operations in 2018, and UNG continues to make improvements to its processes and policies to address issues raised in the audit and ensure compliance with the Clery Act,” Carson said in a statement. “UNG has a long-standing reputation for campus safety, and the health and safety of our university community remains our top priority.” The audit said there may have been data entry errors that caused discrepancies between what statistics were reported to the U.S. Depart ment of Education and what was released to the public. ■ Please see AUDIT, 7A DEATHS 2B Holman Adams, 65 Loy Anderson, 93 Joshua Armour, 40 Sandra Ayers, 76 Shirley Ayers, 79 Debra Bennett, 55 Sherry Berry, 49 Robert Booth, II, 88 Virginia Burnette, 88 Lorenzo Carbajal, 62 Jack Cardin, 55 Paul Carter, 73 Betty Franklin, 93 Kenneth Free, Jr, 61 Herbert Grier, 85 Charlotte Guffey, 80 Catherine Haines, 72 Mark Jamerson 54 Robert Johnson, 86 Jewel Rogers, 94 Frank Lombardo Jr., 67 Rachel Seay, 91 Dennis Machowski. 71 Amir Sebastian Sekhar Maitra, 60 Doris Mize, 74 Ethel O’Kelley, 86 Clifton Payne, 87 Delores Payne, 59 Teresa Payne Kenneth Reese, 67 Mary Shields, 68 John Shreffler, Jr., 64 Greg Thrasher, 59 LB. Walden, 91 Erika Woods, 45 Lawrence Zyla, 87 0 25 9 masks don’t prevent breast cancer SCHEDULE YOUR MAMMOGRAM TODAY We are ready to serve you in a safe and clean environment at the Imaging Centers of Northeast Georgia Medical Center. Enjoy quick, easy scheduling for your annual mammogram at one of our convenient locations in Braselton, Dawsonville, Gainesville or Winder. We offer state-of-the-art imaging technology, including 3D mammography. Learn more at 770-691-5251 or nghs.com/mammogram
