TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - Florida’s top election official expressed confidence, but not “overconfidence,” for this year’s elections as legislators accepted $19.2 million from the federal government Thursday to further secure state and county voting systems that were targeted by Russian cyber-hackers in 2016.
Secretary of State Ken Detzner told members of the Joint Legislative Budget Commission that he was unaware of the attempts to breach databases in the state during the 2016 election, until a September 2017 conference call with the US Department of Homeland Security.
Two attempts involving Florida are noted as part of an indictment issued last Friday by Special counsel Robert Mueller against 12 Russian intelligence officers.
Detzner calls the failure to breach the election systems a “success story” for Florida.
“We are working at it every single day. We are committed to the voters of Florida, to the legislature and to ourselves that we are going to have a secure election," said Detzner.
All 67 counties have applied for the grant funding that will be allocated based upon a formula that includes population and funding requests.
A concern from some elections supervisors including Leon County’s Mark Earley is a requirement that the money be used by the November 6 General Election.
“There are always more elections, and we’ll be learning lessons from this election that can be applied to the next election for hardening up our systems. Those funds would be very helpful in that case," said Earley.
Detzner and election supervisors both agree that time is of the essence with the August primary just over a month away.
