Florida: A full vote-by-mail election in Florida isn’t happening in 2020, despite coronavirus, state leaders say | Steven Lemongello/Orlando Sentinel

Voting by mail in Florida has in the past been beset by problems ranging from signature mismatches, delivery delays and tight deadlines. Now, it could be the key to holding full elections if the state is still in the middle of a pandemic and to avoid scenes like what happened in Wisconsin on Tuesday, where thousands lined up for hours wearing face masks after the state and U.S. Supreme Court rejected postponing a vote there. Democrats and voting rights groups in Florida and across the U.S. are pushing hard to make vote-by-mail as widespread as possible, especially after poll workers for the March 17 state presidential primary tested positive in Broward and Duval counties. Congressional Democrats included billions of dollars for expanded vote-by-mail in their version of the coronavirus stimulus, most of which did not end up in the final bill but is still on the table for future ones. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed 72% of all U.S. adults, including 79% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans, supported universal mail-in ballots. Meanwhile, President Trump and many Republicans are openly hostile to voting by mail, even as Republican governors and legislatures in states such as Ohio are moving forward with it and after Trump cast a mail-in ballot in Florida himself.

Florida: Voter registration system experiences ‘intermittent issues’ | Allison Ross/Tampa Bay Times

Florida’s online voter registration system began experiencing “intermittent issues” Sunday that could have kept some residents from registering to vote online. Some users who went to RegistertovoteFlorida.gov on Sunday encountered a 503 error saying the service was unavailable. The Florida Department of State said Sunday evening that some users experienced issues but others have been able to submit voter registration applications. It said Sunday evening that the site appeared to be up and running. A reporter briefly encountered the error Monday morning, but the website came up when the site was refreshed. The state has added a notification to the website apologizing for any inconvenience and saying it’s working to resolve the issue “as expeditiously as possible.” It has not responded to a question of what caused the problem. The website issue comes at a time when some of the other channels for registering to vote are less available.

Florida: Florida held its primary despite coronavirus. Two Broward County poll workers tested positive for COVID-19 | David Smiley and Bianca Padro Ocasio/Miami Herald

Two poll workers who spent Florida’s primary day at precincts in the city of Hollywood have tested positive for coronavirus, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections said Thursday. According to a spokesman for Supervisor Pete Antonacci, the office learned over the last 24 hours that two workers have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The workers, who have not been identified, worked March 17 at precincts at the Martin Luther King Community Center and the David Park Community Center, both in the city of Hollywood. Spokesman Steve Vancore said the elections office — which oversees voting in one of the Florida counties hit hardest by the global pandemic — does not know when the workers contracted the virus. But he said their contact with voters was limited. “We just don’t know, did they contract it after or before? That’s between them and their physician,” Vancore said. “It’s just something that can’t be known, at least not to us. We just felt it was important to notify the public and, of course, their fellow poll workers who were there.”

Florida: On eve of vote, election chiefs, campaigns adjust to coronavirus | Antonio Fins and Christine Stapleton/The Palm Beach Post

Florida elections officials will hold the primary on Tuesday. But questions about turnout, polling locations and poll workers abounded statewide on Monday for an election that could decide the Democratic presidential nomination. On the eve of a consequential Florida primary, campaign staffers rallied their volunteers, party officials again called for a list of polling place changes and elections officials worked feverishly to enlist extra poll workers. Turnout is impossible to predict, but as of Monday 1.9 million Floridians had cast a ballot by mail or during the early voting window that closed on Sunday evening. State Democratic Party officials say that more than 100,000 Floridians who may be voting in-person on Tuesday have had their precincts changed. They again demanded Monday that Florida’s secretary of state release a master list of substitute statewide polling locations to avoid confusion and voter disenfranchisement. The one sure thing: The primary election is a go and polls will open in Florida at 7 a.m. Tuesday. Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee, along with counterparts in Arizona and Illinois have made that clear enough.

Florida: Coronavirus fears cause poll worker dropouts, safety concerns ahead of Florida primary | Brandon G. Jones/ABC

Election officials across the nation are going to make past-moment modifications to how and where voters will forged their ballots in the remaining most important elections as the U.S. grapples with the widening coronavirus outbreak. The states voting in next Tuesday’s primary – Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio – are all using further precautions to secure each voters and poll personnel from COVID-19, such as moving polling spots, recruiting reserve poll workers and encouraging populations most at danger from the virus to vote early or send in an absentee ballot. Perhaps nowhere is taking the safety measures much more severely than in Florida, where by citizens – together with the state’s far more than 4.3 million people today more than the age of 65, or about 20 per cent of the state’s inhabitants – will head to the polls next Tuesday. The aged and all those with fundamental overall health disorders are most at hazard of developing critical problems if they deal the coronavirus. The Facilities for Disorder Handle and Avoidance has stated that nursing properties are at the best threat of getting influenced by the virus – specified the age of residents and the close quarters in which persons reside – but nursing households are also well-known areas for polling internet sites.

Florida: Is Faster Ballot Counting Worth Risking Election Security? Legislature cuts a corner to get faster vote recount | Mary Ellen Klas/Miami Herald

In the interest of speeding the process of recounting votes in a close election, the Florida House passed legislation Monday to allow county supervisors of elections to purchase special equipment to conduct both machine and manual recounts. But there’s only one vendor — ClearAudit digital imaging system from Clear Ballot Group of Boston — and the prospect that the state could be dependent on a single proprietary software tool has supporters worried that security could be undermined. “Technology is a tool not a process. This recount concept is not ready for prime time,” said Liza McClenaghan, Common Cause Florida state board chair. Both Common Cause and the League of Women Voters say the technology offers promise as a way to give supervisors of elections another tool to store and track paper ballots, but they say the state’s rush to encourage counties to start using digital images of ballots for recounts is a mistake. If the measure passes both chambers, they will urge Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto it.

Florida: Voting access: Florida is ‘most secretive state’ on election security | Jeffrey Schweers/Tallahassee Democrat

Florida’s March 17 presidential primary will be a referendum on state and county elections officials’ efforts to build a wall to stop hacking attempts that are constantly bombarding the system. At a time when 59 percent of the public doesn’t trust the election process, state elections officials have thrown a veil of secrecy over that work, refusing to disclose details about the weaknesses detected in their systems and whether they’ve been fixed. Florida has doubled down on secrecy since federal officials reported at least four counties were hacked in 2016. The state forced all 67 elections supervisors to sign nondisclosure agreements before they could receive federal funding for elections security, be briefed about vulnerabilities found by cybersecurity experts or even hook up to the state’s voter registration system. “It just felt coerced,” said Polk County Supervisor of Elections Lori Edwards, a former member of the Legislature. “We have a broad public records law for a reason, so having to sign a nondisclosure agreement didn’t sit well with me … not only to receive funds, but information too.”

Florida: Cyber experts: Public should have known about 2016 Palm Beach County elections ransomware | Hannah Morse/The Palm Beach Post

In the wake of the dispute over the cyber intrusion at the county elections office, The Palm Beach Post asked a series of security professionals to weigh in on the revelation of the Zepto virus exposure in September 2016. Is three years too long to learn that a ransomware attack happened at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office? Yes, say cybersecurity and IT experts. In the wake of the dispute over the cyber intrusion at the county elections office, The Palm Beach Post asked a series of security professionals to weigh in on the revelation of the Zepto virus exposure in September 2016. “Not only should they report this, they should understand that just because everything seems normal it might not necessarily be,” said Silka Gonzalez, founder of ERMProtect in Coral Gables. “Even if a hacker is already inside your network and passively stealing your information everything in your workplace is going to look normal and ‘business as usual.’ These things don’t come with sirens and red lights.” The scrutiny over Zepto and its purported encroachment by an unknown entity through an elections office computer in the weeks before the 2016 presidential vote has been a source of controversy. This month, current Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link revealed the previously unknown cyber attack via a Zepto virus. The severity of the episode, however, has been disputed by her predecessor, Susan Bucher.

Florida: Experts Reiterate Cybersecurity Warnings for 2020 Election | Sarah Nelson/The Gainesville Sun

Cybersecurity experts warned in late 2019 that internet hacking has climbed to crisis level. And based on what they’ve seen in early 2020, a similar warning has now been issued: that hackers show no signs of letting up and will likely focus on the 2020 election. “What’s more likely is that these cybercriminals will cause disruption,” said Brett Callow, Emsisoft spokesman. “Because most elections operate at the county level, local governments need to prepare.” But because of this year’s tense political climate, and overall spike in cyberattacks, Callow predicts cybercriminals will zero in on the election. Kim Barton, supervisor of the Alachua County, Fla., Elections Office, says the department began to look at cybersecurity preventive security measures years ago, and officials work to keep up with the latest internet security updates. “Cybersecurity is an always evolving field, so our office expects that we will continually be updating our training, procedures, and systems to keep ourselves as protected as possible,” she said.

Florida: Florida’s best election security measure? Paper ballots. Nationally? It’s more complicated. | Christopher Heath/WFTV

Lessons learned from the 2016 election and the 2020 caucus in Iowa show it doesn’t take much to disrupt the ballot counting process. But in Florida, the best protection offered against election issues is simple, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said. “Every voter in Florida votes on paper,” Cowles said. For voters, that paper trail provides a sense of security. “(In) 2016 we all learned about elections and hacking,” Cowles said. Since then, Florida’s elections offices have been working overtime to protect the process by placing the voter registration database and ballot tabulation systems on separate servers.

Florida: Palm Beach County elections ransomware attack raises security questions | Anthony Man and Skyler Swisher/South Florida Sun-Sentinel

From Tallahassee to Washington, D.C., officials and citizens voiced concern Thursday over an until-now undisclosed ransomware attack on the Palm Beach County elections office during the 2016 election season. The bombshell disclosure about the attack came from Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link, who said Wednesday she learned in November about the ransomware attack. Link, who took office in January 2019, said some of the agency’s data was corrupted, but the problem apparently was corrected and didn’t affect the November 2016 elections. The picture was muddied by the response from Susan Bucher, the supervisor of elections at the time, who said it never happened. The current county elections chief said she wasn’t trying to alarm the public — but the disclosure heightened concerns for some, coming just five weeks before Florida’s presidential primary and the local government elections for 20 cities, towns and villages in Palm Beach County.

Florida: DHS preparing report on 2016 Palm Beach election ransomware | David Smiley and Nicholas Nehamas/Miami Herald

Less than five weeks before Florida’s March presidential primary, the Department of Homeland Security is investigating a previously unreported cyber attack on Palm Beach County’s elections office, according to Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link. Link, who was appointed last year by the governor to oversee the county’s beleaguered elections department, said she contacted the FBI in November after a veteran IT employee told her that the office had been infected by a ransomware virus only a few weeks prior to the 2016 election. The virus was not publicly disclosed in 2016. Link said the FBI referred her to DHS, which sent a team of a half-dozen employees to her office late last month to do a “deep dive” into her department’s network. She said a report of their findings and recommendations is expected shortly. “We’ve had the top experts in the country here and they spent a lot of time with our system. When we get the report, we’ll be able to take care of everything we can take care of,” Link said in an interview Thursday. “I wanted this done before March if at all possible.”

Florida: Key Florida Elections Office Endured Cyberattack Ahead of 2016 Election | Miles Parks/NPR

The elections office of Florida’s third-most populous county was breached by a crippling cyberattack in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, NPR confirmed on Thursday. There is no indication that the ransomware attack was connected to Russian interference efforts leading up to the last presidential race, but the revelation about it now shows how election officials are preparing for this year’s election without knowing all the details of what happened before. The attack on Palm Beach County came to light during a Palm Beach Post editorial board interview with county elections supervisor Wendy Sartory Link. “Have we been hacked in Palm Beach County? Yeah, we have,” Link told the paper. A spokesperson for the elections office also confirmed the attack to NPR. “It was in 2016, and as soon as Wendy found out about it, we went and did the necessary precautions to make sure that we were going to be 100% secure and safe,” said Judy Lamey, an assistant public information officer for the elections office.

Florida: Palm Beach County elections office hit by ransomware before 2016 election | Hannah Morse/The Palm Beach Post

Current Palm Beach County elections supervisor Wendy Sartory Link said she recently learned about a 2016 ransomware attack at the elections office. Weeks before the 2016 election that would usher in Donald Trump as president, the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office was subject to a ransomware attack, elections supervisor Wendy Sartory Link told The Palm Beach Post on Wednesday. The attack more than three years ago happened while Susan Bucher was elections supervisor, but Link said she was unsure how the virus infiltrated the system. “We weren’t part of that, but have we been hacked in Palm Beach County? Yeah, we have,” Link said during an editorial board interview. But Link said she does not believe the ransomware attack against the county is one of the two Russian hacking attempts in Florida revealed in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report last April.

Florida: State Could Allow Counties To Use A Different System When Recounting Voter Ballots In Elections | Robert Gaffney/WFSU

When elections are close, voter ballots are recounted. First by machine and if the results are still slim, by hand. It’s a process Rep. Cord Byrd (R-Jacksonville Beach) remembers during the 2018 election. Byrd says he saw that election’s recount in Duval County. “We’re in a room, and you’ve got dozens of people and tables spread around and tens of thousands of ballots out, and all it takes is one stray mark to spoil a paper ballot,” Byrd says. Now, Byrd is backing a bill that would allow election staff to use a system, currently used for auditing,  for machine and manual recounts too. Right now, for manual recounts, election staff have to sort through ballots by hand. Byrd says the technology he’s proposing is already approved by the state. Currently, voting systems can make digital copies of paper ballots. Still, Leon County’s Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley says those copies are hard to access and don’t have any sorting capability. The auditing system Byrd wants the state to use keeps an inventory of all paper ballots and makes them easier to find so staff can cross-check them with digital copies. Earley says he’s been working with the technology for 11 years.

Florida: Despite Improvements, Concerns Remain About 2020 Election Security | Denise Royal/WUSF

With the presidency on the ballot this year, there are real fears of attempts by foreign powers to interfere in Florida’s election. Increasing election security is a priority for local, state and federal officials. Millions of tax dollars are being spent to shore up election security and to reassure voters that their votes will count. In addition to the cyber-threats, Florida has a history of close elections, and trouble with recounting close votes. This year, Florida’s county officials are on the front lines to identify problems. The Florida Roundup took a close look at election security and what problems remain in this crucial year for voters. Tammy Jones, president of Florida Supervisors of Elections, and Ion Sancho, the former elections supervisor for Leon County, joined hosts Tom Hudson and Melissa Ross.

Florida: Palm Beach County elections chief ’interested’ in high-speed ballot systems for recounts | Jeffrey Schweers and Hannah Morse/The Palm Beach Post

Rather than hiring hundreds of people to perform the sometimes messy and always time-consuming job of recounting votes, several county supervisors, including officials in Palm Beach County, of elections want to use their high-speed ballot auditing systems instead. Legislation now has been filed to allow them to do just that. The measure’s co-sponsors this year are state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee (SB 1032) and state Rep. Cord Byrd, R-Neptune Beach (HB 1005). It’s been endorsed by the Florida Supervisors of Elections Association. “There are so many issues and challenges with a recount that it just makes sense,” Montford said. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said her office is considering testing out the technology during the presidential preference primary in March. If the elections office agrees to a trial run with the company, one type of ballot, like vote-by-mail, would be counted with this system. “We’ll be able to test how it works and whether or not we think it’s a useful program for us or not,” Link said. “It also gives us the opportunity to wait and see what the Legislature will do.” If the measure passes in Tallahassee, Link said she would “be even more interested in it.”

Florida: Pensacola mum on ransom demands by cyberattackers | Bobby Caina Calvan and Frank Bajak/ Associated Press

A Florida city confirmed Friday that hackers seeking to extort money were responsible for crippling its computer systems earlier this week but officials have yet to decide whether they will pay a reported $1 million ransom. If they do opt to fork over the money, they may have to dip into Pensacola city coffers; the city of about 52,000 in Florida’s Panhandle — whose annual budget is roughly $245 million — is not insured for such an attack. Obtaining it in the future is “something that our risk manager will certainly be looking into,” said city spokeswoman Kaycee Lagarde. Lagarde confirmed that ransomware was behind the attack that brought down the city’s computer network over the weekend, less than a day after a Saudi aviation student killed three U.S. sailors and wounded eight other people at a nearby naval air station. The FBI has said the attacks were not connected.

Florida: Website hack could be as bad as vote attack, warns Florida official | Mary Ellen Klas/Tampa Bay Times

Florida’s top election official on Tuesday warned that attackers could attempt to disrupt elections without even breaking into the voting systems — by simply changing the results on election websites. Secretary of State Laurel Lee told the governor’s Cybersecurity Task Force that Florida’s elections tabulation system is secure, but state and county elections websites “are far more vulnerable to being attacked or defaced and pose a very real threat, not of changing election results, but of undermining voter confidence.” “If our website is defaced such that it reflects that the losing candidate won, and I have to go out the next morning and explain to the press and the public that the actual winner was the other candidate, we’ve lost critical public trust,’’ Lee told the group meeting at Florida International University in Miami. To address that possibility, Lee said the department is “working very hard to secure those sites and stay on top of evolving threats and tactics to keep them secure.”

Florida: State and federal officials promise transparency but sidestep specifics on election security | Jeffrey Schweers/Tallahassee Democrat

State, local and federal officials asked the public to trust their ongoing efforts to strengthen Florida’s election system against foreign and domestic threats leading up to the 2020 elections, but they refused to give any details. “We are committed to the maximum amount of transparency as possible,” Secretary of State Laurel Lee told more than a dozen reporters Friday at a 30-minute Tallahassee news conference hosted by Larry Keefe, U.S. Attorney for Florida’s northern district. She dodged a barrage of questions about why the state won’t say which counties were hacked in 2016, what vulnerabilities her office found during a review of the election systems of all 67 counties, and whether the state would disclose any future breaches or potential breaches to the public. A week ago, she sidestepped the same questions during a 30-minute interview with the Tallahassee Democrat citing security issues. Keefe said Friday’s news conference was ushering in an “unprecedented” collaboration among state, federal and local officials responsible for election security, vowing his office will investigate and prosecute any election tampering.

Florida: New U.S attorney tries to restore confidence in Florida elections | Mary Ellen Klas/Miami Herald

As state officials acknowledge that domestic and foreign actors may be constantly attempting to penetrate Florida’s election infrastructure, U.S. Attorney Larry Keefe sees another danger that is equally formidable but perhaps harder to manage: public perception. “All you need is a computer and some shrewd, smart, social engineering-type people to get inside the heads of the Americans … and you can wreak havoc on a free and open society,’’ said Keefe, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida. Secretary of State Laurel Lee acknowledged this week that Florida’s election systems are under “daily” attack by foreign or domestic adversaries and, while she wouldn’t detail what the attacks are, she said the state has launched an aggressive campaign to educate and train local election officials to be able to counter those threats. Keefe said those attacks often attempt to “get inside our electronic election infrastructure and change the voter rolls or tabulations.”

Florida: Election security audit complete but details unclear | Mike Vasilinda/WIXT

A security audit of all 67 Florida counties ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis has been completed, but once a report is published, it’s not going to advertise what problems were found.  “The secretary, basically, reported to us they had visited all 67 counties already,” said Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux, who is the former president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. “And they are in the process of producing a remediation report and we’ll go from there.” Lux added he was not aware of how much remediation has been ordered. DeSantis ordered the security audit in May after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report said Russians successfully hacked two Florida counties in 2016. “There was no manipulation. It didn’t have any effect,” DeSantis said in May. But he said the FBI would not let him name the counties, partly because the FBI said it would help the hackers learn how they were detected.

Florida: Russian hackers likely to target Florida again in 2020 election, experts warn | Peter Stone/The Guardian

Florida’s record as a vital swing state made it a target for meddling in the 2016 election when Russians breached two county voting systems and a software vendor and now concerns are being raised about voting security in the state for the 2020 ballot, say election and cyber security experts, federal reports and Democrats. With FBI director Christopher Wray and other intelligence officials predicting more Russian and possibly other foreign interference in the next elections, experts say Florida is again a likely target for Russian hackers, or others bent on disrupting voting, which potentially could alter tallies and create other problems. “Obviously, Florida will be a critical state in 2020 and Florida election officials should assume they will be targeted again,” said Larry Norden, who runs the election reform program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Election security experts are concerned about several potential problem areas, including software that stores sensitive voter registration data, the short timetable for any post-election audits and Florida’s history of voting snafus. Some of Florida’s election problems in 2016 were highlighted in April by special counsel Robert Mueller’s report about Russian interference and in a July Senate intelligence committee study on Russian meddling and election security issues nationwide.

Florida: Broward County elections chief says military adversary could hack US elections. ‘There are forces bigger than us.’ | Anthony Man/South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Broward Supervisor of Elections Peter Antonacci said Wednesday that a determined effort to hack elections — if it’s undertaken by the military of a significant foreign adversary — could prove successful. Antonacci said in an interview he was acknowledging the obvious reality, even though it’s something many people don’t want to recognize. “If the military organizations of our adversaries around the world decide to do something, technically they have the capability to do it,” he said. “There are forces bigger than us and people much bigger than us that may wish us wrong. If they have the intent and capacity, bad things can happen.” Antonacci said publicly offering the assessment isn’t the kind of thing that will endear him to the broad universe of people who run elections, including other county elections supervisors. “My fellow supervisors will probably drum me out of the club,” he said. “The general thing people in my business like to say is ‘Everything’s OK.’” Antonacci, who oversees elections in Florida’s second-largest county, said his job is to make sure that Broward County has as many safeguards as it can and to have systems in place that can detect if and when something happens. “What we can do as little people in that drama is make sure our system is protected as much as possible.”

Florida: Counties’ elections systems were connected to the internet, report says | Steven Lemongello/Orlando Sentinel

Seven Florida counties have elections systems that have been connected to the internet for months, if not years, according to a report by Vice Motherboard – and one was still connected as of this week. The counties – Bradford, Charlotte, Flagler, Wakulla, Miami-Dade, Pasco and one other county researchers were unable to identify – were among 35 in 10 states in which elections systems were potentially exposed to risk of hacking, Motherboard reported. At least 19 of the systems, including one in Miami-Dade, were still connected to the internet as of August. Elections supervisors in Central Florida said although they use the equipment being cited, none of them believed their systems were exposed. The systems are made by Election Systems & Software, one of the country’s top voting machine companies. Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said 49 of the state’s 67 counties, including Orange, use ES&S equipment. The systems are used to transmit unofficial vote totals via a wireless modem from ES&S voting machines on election night, Motherboard reported. The server that receives these votes is connected to the internet behind a Cisco firewall, both of which are only supposed to be connected to the internet for only a few seconds.

Florida: More questions on Florida elections despite assurances | Paula Dockery/Orlando Sentinel

In a recent column I warned that we needed to act to protect our elections against enemies foreign and domestic. It was not my intention to sound alarmist but rather to express my sincere concern for the integrity and fairness of our elections. Since that column appeared I have heard from a U.S. attorney in one of Florida’s districts, several supervisors of elections, a representative from one of the election machine vendors I mentioned and quite a few readers. The latest to weigh in was Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee, who sent a rebuttal of my column to at least one newspaper where my column appeared. Wow, that really went to the top in short order. Secretary Lee was fairly respectful in her carefully worded response. She was firm in her denials of election system vulnerabilities and touted all that has been done to make Florida’s elections safe. I’d like to believe her but I still have my doubts. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Lee as Florida’s top election official in late January 2019 after his first appointee resigned after less than a month in office. Prior to her appointment, Lee served as a judge for Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.

Florida: New Senate Intelligence report suggests four Florida counties hacked by Russia | Dave Elias/NBC

It appears that Russia’s attempt to hack Florida’s election system was more intense than first thought. A new Senate Intelligence report suggests that there were actually “four” Florida counties hacked instead of two that we first told you about back in April. The 61-page report details the hack attempts. It now says all 50 states were targets. Florida, which is referred to as “State 2” in the report, was a key target. The report says the feds repeatedly warned the state about potential hacks, but then-Governor Rick Scott said he knew nothing about it until he became a senator. “They got into two counties in Florida. They didn’t get anything done, but they got into two counties,” Scott told NBC Meet the Press. Much of the report was redacted, and every state except Illinois was assigned a number.

Florida: Senate intelligence report adds to confusion over Russian elections hacking in Florida | David Smiley and Alex Daugherty/Miami Herald

Three months after Florida’s state government was blindsided by the release of previously classified information that two local elections offices were hacked ahead of the 2016 presidential elections, Gov. Ron DeSantis and members of Congress have been caught off-guard once again by a newly released intelligence report on Russian elections interference. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a heavily redacted 67-page report that appears to include new information about efforts by Russian hackers to probe and target elections networks in Florida — including the FBI’s suspicions in 2018 that, in fact, four county elections systems had been hacked rather than two. The report, which mentions that hackers may have carried out cyber reconnaissance missions across all 50 states, details attempts by the Russian intelligence GRU syndicate to probe elections systems in Illinois and 20 other unnamed states. It specifically discusses those efforts in Illinois and an unnamed “State 2,” where details about meetings and cybersecurity efforts appear to mostly jibe with what’s previously been disclosed about the election system hacking attempts in Florida. But the report does not definitively name Florida. And nearly 24 hours after the release of the report, with the Senate Intelligence Committee apparently unwilling or unable to provide more information, Florida’s politicians and elections officials remained stuck in yet another guessing game about Russian hacking and the security of Florida’s elections networks.

Florida: 2020 election: Democrats man up for recount; GOP looks to boost voter ranks | Jennifer Jia/The Palm Beach Post

Brandon Peters, the state party’s voter protection program director, says he told Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting in June that they should assume another recount will occur in 2020. Election Day in November 2020 is still more than a year away, but Florida Democrats are already lining up their poll watching, legal and — just in case — recount teams while state Republicans look to drive registrations higher. This past week, a Florida Democratic Party mass email was sent to potential volunteers calling on them to “protect the vote in Florida in 2020.” It added: “Because the GOP will stop at nothing to re-elect Donald Trump next year, it’s important for us to build our roster early.” Brandon Peters, the state party’s voter protection program director, says he told Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting in June that they should assume another recount will occur in 2020. “We are going to be prepared,” Peters said. He hopes to recruit as many as 15,000 lawyers and volunteers by July of next year. Peters created a GoFundMe page in January to raise money needed to cover the costs of the effort. Fifty-two donors surpassed the post’s $2,500 goal. The funds will go toward hiring, training and equipping voter protection teams in Florida and Georgia.

Florida: Here’s (more) evidence Bill Nelson suffered from bad ballot design in 2018 | Langston Taylor/Tampa Bay Times

Evidence continues to mount that shows former U.S. Senator Bill Nelson’s race for re-election in 2018 was hampered by a ballot design quirk. Florida has already enacted a law that would standardize ballots to avoid a repeat of what happened in part of heavily-Democratic Broward County: a ballot design that made the Senate race “easy to overlook.” It was immediately clear after the Nov. 6 election that far more voters than expected were leaving the Senate box blank. Many of those voters supported other Democrats, like the losing candidate for Governor, Andrew Gillum. In a new academic paper presented Thursday at the Election Sciences, Reform, & Administration Conference, two researchers looked beyond vote totals, drilling down to the individual ballot level. What they found was this: In Broward County, voters who skipped the Senate race likely did so by accident, rather than purposely avoiding the race. Broward County ballots put voting instructions in the first column, rather than stripped across the top. That design pushed the Senate race far down the page, isolating it from other marquee contests.