Elections offices keeping a sharp eye on safety, misinformation in run-up to November 5

Investigators from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have combed through election offices in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties, searching for vulnerabilities that could compromise safety, cybersecurity and truth in this year's elections.

Threats have come from irate voters, misinformation and hackers, but election officials, facing down those threats, are responding by implementing new state laws and making changes of their own.

Local supervisors of elections, in fact, say they don't even know how much they've spent so far hardening their systems and facilities.

St. Lucie County, for example, now has a sheriff's deputy stationed just inside the door to the Ft. Pierce elections office because of voters who frightened the workers inside, prompting a call to 911. Martin and Indian River counties have added bollards outside their buildings to prevent drivers from ramming a vehicle into their facilities.

"Because people think of ways to take you down," explained Leslie Swan, Indian River County supervisor of elections. Bollards surround the backup generator at each of those election offices to prevent a similar threat to a smooth, accurate and fair election.

Security is the No. 1 challenge at the Martin County elections office, Supervisor Vicki Davis said.

That includes protecting employees from physical harm following incidents in other parts of the country. Fentanyl was discovered in mail sent to election offices in at least five states, according to The Associated Press. Each Treasure Coast election office now stocks Naloxone — a drug approved to treat effects of fentanyl exposure — and employees have been trained to administer it.

Cybersecurity at election offices

The region's election offices and others statewide also now face threats from computer hackers. Russian hackers just a month before the 2020 presidential election targeted U.S. computer systems including those at local governments around the country, according to federal officials. Hackers were able to break in where election-related material was kept, federal officials said.

"Cybersecurity has been a major, major focus," Swan said; Davis called it "a huge challenge."

"Election security has been our priority as well," said Gertrude Walker, St. Lucie County supervisor of elections. "It's such a new phenomena for all of us to be concerned at all times about hacking. Whether it's our own personal cell phone, home computers, everybody is concerned about that."

Following the 2020 election, every Florida election office now is equipped to detect intrusion into office networks by computer hackers. Indian River and St. Lucie election offices are on their own computer networks, separate from other county offices, to help prevent intrusion. Martin County's is on the county's network, but it's not connected to Wi-Fi, Davis said.

Election offices get federal help

Swan, Walker and Davis have implemented recommendations made by Homeland Security's Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency after its visit to each operation.

“CISA works closely with the state election officials and local supervisors of elections, providing them, by request, with no-cost services and actionable information to help them secure their systems," CISA Senior Adviser Cait Conley said.

The agency reviewed both physical security and cybersecurity "to address risks that could potentially disrupt the electoral process," she said.

That work started in Indian River County in 2017, said Maureen Houssell, Swan's deputy. In Martin County, officials added more lighting around the building and cameras inside and outside. Martin County upgraded existing cameras and replaced the glass in its office windows with hurricane resistant glass.

Misinformation

Misinformation via social media and television has been the biggest challenge for Swan and her employees in Indian River County. For example, some voters in the November 2023 election came to a polling place to drop off their mail-in ballots, Swan said. But that's prohibited by law.

They'd gotten bad information somewhere, she said.

Following the 2020 election, according to Davis, people here spread misinformation about voting equipment, claiming it was was tabulating incorrectly and that votes could be flipped.

Lots of election security

Despite the threats, Florida overall has "good policies" to ensure a safe and secure election, said Lonna Atkeson, political science professor and director of the LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University. The institute studies and promotes solutions to public and private issues facing Florida and the nation.

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Each county does a post-election audit, for example, with some counties such as Leon auditing 100 percent of the ballots, Atkeson said. Voting machines are checked to see if they are counting correctly and if they have zero votes before voting starts, she said.

"There's just a ton of election security," she said.

Keith Burbank is TCPalm's watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Treasure Coast elections offices address security before Election 2024