Election Officials Working Hard, but Not Overconfident
April 25th, 2018 by Jake Stofan
With the 2018 midterm elections drawing ever closer criticism of Florida’s election security has been a hot button issue for politicians like U.S. Senator Marco Rubio who called election officials overconfident.
Election Supervisors like Brian Corley who oversees elections in Pasco county say that’s simply not the case.
“I would in no way say that we are overconfident. We have been giving everything we have… to make sure that voters know when they come out to cast their vote, their vote will count,” said Corley.
Florida law requires a sample of ballots to be hand audited after each election to ensure accuracy and 7 counties (one of which is in a pilot phase) have taken that auditing process a step further, by implementing an electronic auditing system called Clear Audit.
In a normal audit elections officials have to comb through hundreds of ballot boxes looking for specific precincts. The electronic auditing system takes the manual search out by scanning ballots into a database.
“It allows you to find the paper you need to review much more efficiently,” said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Early.
Early used the Clear Audit system in the 2016 general election.
“Having a good audit system in place is a very good protection and it’s kind of your baseline,” said Early. “That’s the most critical thing, is making sure you’re counting your ballots right.”
60 counties don’t use the Clear Audit system, but say manual audits have still proven effective and accurate.
“It just doesn’t mean that one method is necessarily better than the other or vice versa,” said Corley.
While auditing is one piece of the puzzle, supervisors are working with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure security is adequate in the face of potential cyber threats as well.
In a statement, The Department of State says it’s taken, “significant steps in recent years to upgrade hardware, software and firewalls.”
The Department also plans to hire additional cybersecurity personnel ahead of the 2018 election.
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