Whether our voting systems themselves are being undermined, allegations of hacking have undermined the confidence of voters, if nothing else.
Florida, like other states, has spent an infusion of federal money to hire experts, add layers of security and adopt paper trails to thwart cyberthreats to their election systems.
Tuesday’s primary is seen as the first big test since Russian operatives tried hacking Florida’s voting rolls leading up to the 2016 election.
Earlier this month, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson made waves when he made unfounded claims that Russians had hacked their way into the state's voter registration. The Florida Department of State disputed those claims.
Congress approved $380 million this year to help them protect against cyberthreats with $19 million going to Florida. The state used the money to hire five cybersecurity experts and to train local election officials on cybersecurity.
In Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County received $814,427, followed by Pinellas County ($666,195), Pasco County ($349,346), Sarasota County ($309,400), Hernando County ($163,337) and Citrus County ($137,245).
"Yes, it's concerning," said voter Dennis Oveis. "I don't think we're doing nearly as much as we should be doing."
But others feel talk of potential threats is overblown and politically motivated.
"I think a lot of people are using this hacking as a political ploy to cause people to vote a certain way," said voter Jeff Paulk. "I'm not concerned there's any kind of hacking of our ballots here."
Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Craig Latimer is reassuring voters that they have little reason for concern.
“The biggest asset we have is we have a paper ballot and you can’t hack paper,” Latimer said Tuesday morning on 10News Brightside.
The registration system in Hillsborough County, like other counties, is not connected to the tabulation system, he said.
And at Hillsborough’s 270 voting sites, the machines are not connected to each other.
“Voters should have confidence,” he said. “Get out and vote because this is an attempt to undermine the confidence of voters and going out to vote is how you stand up to it.”
Latimer said more than 135,000 people in Hillsborough County had already voted prior to Tuesday “without an issue or problem at all.”
USA TODAY contributed to this report.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the 10News app now.
Have a news tip? Email desk@wtsp.com, or visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.
