ATLANTA • The office of Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also the Republican gubernatorial nominee, said Sunday it is investigating the state Democratic Party in connection with an alleged attempt to hack Georgia’s online voter database, which is used to check in voters at polling places in the midterm elections.

The statement offered no evidence for the claim and didn’t specify allegations against Georgia Democrats. But it quickly became a last-minute flashpoint in one of the nation’s most closely contested governor’s races as Tuesday’s election loomed.

Democrats viewed the development as more evidence that Kemp’s office, which oversees elections, was serving as an extension of his gubernatorial campaign. Republicans, meanwhile, framed it as an instance of Democrats trying to arrange nefarious votes.

It’s playing out the same day that Kemp will campaign alongside President Donald Trump in Macon.

As he left the White House on Sunday for Georgia, Trump said he hadn’t been briefed on the issue and didn’t know anything about it.

Kemp’s office said federal authorities had been notified. The FBI declined to comment on the matter.

A representative for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the agency had been notified, but it deferred to Georgia officials for details.

Sunday’s announcement came as the Coalition for Good Governance, a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Kemp alleging gross negligence in managing the state’s elections, cited published reports saying a third party had discovered that Georgia’s online registered voter database — which his office manages — is subject to hacking that could alter voters’ information or remove them from the registered voter list altogether.

University of Michigan computer scientist Matthew Bernhard reviewed the reported flaw — which the Democratic Party on Saturday asked several computer scientists to review — and told The Associated Press it could have allowed anyone with access to an individual voter’s personal information to alter the record of any voter in the system.

The finger-pointing is the latest turn in a campaign whose final weeks have been dominated by charges of voter suppression and countercharges of attempted voter fraud.

Democrat Stacey Abrams, who would become the nation’s first black female governor if she wins, has called Kemp “an architect of voter suppression” and says he’s used his post as chief elections officer to make it harder for certain voters to cast ballots. Kemp counters that he’s following state and federal law and that it’s Abrams and her affiliated voting advocacy groups trying to help people, including noncitizens, cast ballots illegally.

The atmosphere has left partisans and good-government advocates alike worrying about the possibility that the losing side will not accept Tuesday’s results as legitimate. Polls suggest a tight race.

The accusation is not the first from Kemp accusing outsiders of trying to penetrate his office.

Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp speaks during a rally this month in Grovetown, Ga. The official office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Sunday that it is investigating the state Democratic Party in connection with what it said was an attempted hack of the state’s online voter database.

the associated press