Monday marked the first day of early voting in Florida’s primaries, and some voters say they’re just not as confident as they would like to be in the process.
From Russian hacking to warnings from Florida’s senators, and now, reports that an 11-year old was able to hack into a replica of Florida’s election website.
“I guess I’m not that confident, but I don’t think I can do much about it personally,” said Marlene Rubin, planning to cast her ballot at an early voting location in Tampa. “So, I just do the best I can to vote and get people to vote and advocate for my candidates.”
More than ever, voter confidence is being undermined.
Now, reports from the DEFCON Hackers convention in Las Vegas, where an 11-year old was reportedly able to change election results on a replica of Florida’s state election computers in just minutes has people shaking their heads.
Do we need to be worried?
“It’s not a real-life situation,” says Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer.
Latimer says voters should not lack confidence. The system used in the DEFCON hack, he says, is outdated. Also, no one’s cracking open voting machines in the middle of a precinct on election day without being noticed, says Latimer. And websites are not connected to the vote counting equipment.
“So, they are not realistic the way they are trying to portray they are, hacking into these machines and what they are doing,” said Latimer.
Latimer says, in the end, the vote will be right, because In Florida, voting precincts use paper ballots. Those ballots, he says, are kept for 22 months to ensure the election outcomes are accurate.
Still, Brenda Hamlin says she’ll be mailing her ballot in this time. “I don’t trust anything 100%,” said Hamlin, who’s grown skeptical after months of hacking headlines.
“I’m always concerned about it, because of that,” said Hamlin. “I think there are a lot of things I can happen - where our votes don’t get counted sometimes.”
Charlie Fisher says he’s fairly certain his ballot was counted correctly when he voted early Monday.
“I’m sure people cheated in votes in ancient Greece. It’s something that we all, as supporters of democracies, have to look out for and be careful about,” said Fisher.
Latimer agrees.
“They need to stand up and vote to show that they are not going to have their confidence undermined. That they do believe in our system,” he said.
The hackers at DEFCON admit their systems are replicas, and perhaps they don’t have the very latest software or security updates.
But they think state elections officials should actually let them take a crack at their updated systems too, in order to expose vulnerabilities - before someone else finds them.
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