Floridians have until July 30 to register or change their party affiliation if they want to vote in the August 28th Primary Election.
With so much attention on Russian cyber-meddling in the 2016 presidential election, St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes says voting security is a top priority.
“It’s not our voting system that’s exposed. They are individual single servers on a closed circuit—they’re not open to the internet. What’s open to the internet is our voter registration system.”
Duval County uses voter information software made by Tallahassee-based VR Systems, which is the company Russia reportedly tried to hack in 2016 by sending malware infected emails to local elections offices.
Duval Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan said VR Systems sent letters to its clients to reassure them that the outcome of the election was not at risk.
“It is also important to note that none of our products perform the function of ballot marking or tabulation of marked ballots. So nothing could have affected the count.”
This year, Florida Governor Rick Scott made $19 million in federal funds available to the state’s county election offices to bolster cyber security.
Voters are encouraged to check and confirm their voter registration status with the Florida Department of State's online voter registration website.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews.
