FBI warns election officials that hackers tried to break into Florida voting system

[teach1st]

Source: Tampa Bay Times

TALLAHASSEE — Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation held a secret conference call with all 67 county supervisors of elections in Florida on Friday afternoon to discuss the security of voters' ballots ahead of the November election.

One elections supervisor told the Times/Herald that the FBI informed supervisors of "a malicious act found in a jurisdiction" in Florida, but he stressed "we've not been hacked" and nothing was found to have happened at the state level, such as with Florida's voter registration system.

"It was a good call in that they were proactive, and we need to have federal and state authorities working together," Leon County Elections Supervisor Ian Sancho said. "I would warn people against jumping to any conclusions. ... The positive and aggressive discussion we had is exactly what we need to do to be secure for Nov. 8."

Florida Department of State spokeswoman Meredith Beatrice acknowledged the department "participated in an informational call related to elections security" that the FBI convened

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/fbi-warns-election-officials-that-hackers-tried-to-break-into-florida/2296035?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Ford_Prefect]

1. I find it fascinating that the FBI hasn't noticed the GOP taint to the "hackers".

Imagine that!

Still selling the idea that the Russians are coming, I guess.

[DonCoquixote]

2. if the russians were hired

then no sense being snarky on the idea that "The Russians are coming."

[Ford_Prefect]

5. The FBI couldn't tell the difference between Russian professionals, independent hackers, and

local talent hired out to the GOP. Or else they have an agenda to sell.

Snark has nothing to do with it.

I am speaking fact, not theory, not ideology, or new cold war politics.

[DonCoquixote]

7. like it or not

The line between all the people you mention blurs, which means, at the very least, they need to see who is who, regardless of whether the facts come out to outright agents or the proverbial people in a basement. However, if you start this off saying it is not russian because you are worried about "new cold war politics", you already hinder chances of seeing just what does float up.

[Ford_Prefect]

11. The GOP is far more likely to have done it from a motivational perspective.

My point is that if the FBI can see it the Russians are unlikely culprits, not because they lack motivation but because they are unlikely to have left clues. There are real good reasons to be cautious about what we are being told about this including that we have no public proof available which says it happened as we were told, or that it happened at all.

There is a very well placed group of Neo-Cons within our government who have been agitating to drive us into a shooting war over the events in Ukraine and elsewhere. I won't go into why they believe that is a good idea other than to say IMO they are as wrong about that as they were about invading Iraq.

Whatever truth there may be to the recent remarks by the FBI about invasive hacking of parts of the voting databases, in Florida and elsewhere, I suspect there could also be a significant degree of spin to the above effect.

I would point out that the present Russian government is not the only one with a significant history of fabricating news and events to suit its political goals, not to mention the ability to apply sophisticated computer technology and talent to those ends.

[mitch96]

8. Russians are coming

Hell, they are all ready here.. in Aventura Florida!... loads of 'em....
Dasvidanya bubby
m

[forest444]

3. To which Reptilian Rick asked: "were they GOP?"

"Because if they were, I frankly don't see the problem."

[onehandle]

4. They spelled Russia wrong. nt

[C_U_L8R]

6. I wonder when we're going to fire back

I mean this (seeming) state sponsored hacking is getting out of hand, isn't it?

[Sancho]

9. When Putin showed up on the ballot the FBI became suspicious!!

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

10. I wonder if it is that server in Chattanooga...

... endlessly attempting to hack the vote ala Ohio 2004. looking for it's creator.

[elmac]

12. Well, when FLA counts their votes

and the numbers are twice the state population with Russian sir names then we might have a clue.

[YOHABLO]

13. How can anyone be so sure where the hacks come from? Florida is full of crazy right wingers.

[Rex]

14. A lot goes on in Florida.

Has a reputation.

[hedda_foil]

15. Ion Sancho was the first election supervisors to ally with Lee tion integrity activists.

His understanding is broad and deep after 10 years or more of being on the right side of the issue. He even let a team of security experts hack one of his systems way back then. He will do whatever it takes to secure the election.

[csziggy]

19. Ion Sancho was originally elected because his predecessor screwed up an election

Long story - the woman who had been supervisor for so long no one ran against decided on the last afternoon to declare to run that she wanted to retire. Her son was the only candidate and had been working for her in the office for many years so people thought he'd be able to handle the job and no one ran against him.

The first election he ran on his own was a disaster - on the old lever type machines the ballots were not properly aligned and it was almost impossible to tell who you were voting for. It was so bad people sued to have the election run over - the case was lost and that was the precedent that did not allow for re-running any part of the election for Bush versus Gore in 2000.

Ion Sancho ran against the screw up the next election and swore that every election would be clean, verifiable and easy to check. He brought in the optical scanners with paper ballots. The machines are programmed to kick out any questionable ballot immediately so the voter can be asked to re-do their ballots. Ion Sancho always had the machines set that way. That was in the late 1980s and Ion was well ahead of the times with the technology he brought in.

In 2000 the re-count for Leon County took 45 minutes. The few unreadable ballots - that the voters refused to correct - were scanned and put on the Leon County Supervisor of Elections website. I still have the PDF of those ballots somewhere.

Ion Sancho is retiring this year. He endorsed Mark Earley who has worked in the office for many years. I hope Earley is as good as Ion has been - if not the voters of Leon County might go drag Ion back into office and force him to serve for the rest of his life. (Just kidding!)

[Helen Borg]

16. We've only known about this for the last 10 years at least.

...

[Old Vet]

17. I think we all can agree Florida is gonna be a make or break state again............

Don't forget the republicans were one step ahead of every move the democrats made in the great Bush theft. My fear are the same voting machines used back then are STILL being used, Although theres hundreds on you-tube with the ability to easily hack these machines.

[Old Vet]

18. One more fact- 40 or more states are going to be using voting machines over TEN years old

That's a recipe for disaster.....As in a Trump win