Florida Needs a Hand Count Ballot Option
We have disaster recovery plans for EVERYTHING except elections
Having to deal with the constant threat of hurricanes, Florida has disaster plans for just about everything.
Everything BUT ELECTIONS.
Per current FL law, and SOS Cord Byrd and Divisions of Elections Chief Maria Matthews, our local Supervisors of Elections ARE FORBIDDEN to count ballots by hand.
Suppose you saw what happened recently in the South Carolina Primary and Kari Lake's AZ elections. In those cases, if there are any problems with networks or the machines, election clerks are instructing citizens to place their ballots in the "second slot" which ironically goes to a large trash bin under the tabulator. They are being told, that the election staff will count those ballots…later.
Yeah, I know....The same people tell us that machines are not connected to the Internet.🙄 So technically an Internet outage should have no issue. But keep in mind, that these are probably the same people who can’t tell you what a woman is, so we have to be a little more tolerant of their ability to reason.
The point here is we have an opportunity to fix this issue by getting HB 359 passed during this legislative session.
This bill would give local SOEs the authority to hand count ballots and submit them as the certified results instead of the machine tabulation.
Our local Supervisors of the Elections should be able to hand count ballots to at least cover likely scenarios that seem rumbling on the horizon.
In law, FL is currently uniquely prohibited to have ONLY a mechanical or digital count. We need to change that. And now while the Legislative session is in and we have a good bill, there has been no better opportunity than now to get this resolved.
So please help us with this Call-To-Action
BACKGROUND
GENERAL BILL by Jacques ; Yarkosky ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Amesty ; Bankson ; Barnaby ; Bell ; Beltran ; Borrero ; Garcia ; Gossett-Seidman ; Plakon ; Rudman ; Tramont
Voting Systems; Authorizes counties to count ballots by hand at precinct level; prohibits DOS from approving certain voting systems; requires DOS to make certain information & materials available to the public on its website; deletes public records exemption that applies to certain software on file with DOS; provides that software is public record & must be provided at actual cost of duplication.
CALL-TO-ACTION
Be Bold, Be Strong, Be American, and exercise your Freedom of Speech!
Please CALL, EMAIL, and TWEET Governor DeSantis, the Senate President, and Florida House Speaker as well as your state senator and representative, and let them know that HB 359 needs to be reexamined and reconsidered by both houses after what happened last week when AT&T’s network went down for many of its customers across the United States on Thursday morning, leaving over 74,000 customers unable to place calls, text or access the internet for nearly 11 hours due to a software update to the system. This simple glitch demonstrates how vulnerable our grid is and this should be a wake-up call to every Floridian.
Unfortunately, Florida has no EMP emergency voter election integrity backup protocols in place. Floridians are at risk in the event the Chinese attack our grid with malware, an electromagnetic pulse, or another software glitch update. This needs to be addressed immediately especially since OUR cybersecurity protocols have not been updated for over 20 years per Florida General Auditor.
Currently, we have emergency protocols for hurricanes, flooding, tornados, and more. It only stands to reason that we need to add or include emergency election integrity protocols to our Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) in the event we lose our internet. Gov. DeSantis referred to an EMP attack last week on Friday.
Also, be sure to thank them for their valuable time, upholding their oath of office as well as being a champion on HB 359.
CALLS
Governor Ron DeSantis (850) 717-9337
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (850) 487-5028
Senate President Pro Tempore Dennis Baxley (850) 487-5013
Senate Majority Leader Ben Albritton (850) 487-5027
House Speaker Rep. Paul Renner (850) 717-5019
Speaker pro tempore Chuck Clemons (850) 717-5022
Majority Leader Michael Grant (850) 717-5075
Click here to find your Florida Senator: Senate Directory
Click here to find your Florida House Representative: Florida House Directory
EMAILS
passidomo.kathleen.web@flsenate.gov
baxley.dennis.web@flsenate.gov
albritton.ben.web@flsenate.gov
Paul.Renner@myfloridahouse.gov
Chuck.Clemons@myfloridahouse.gov
Michael.Grant@myfloridahouse.gov
Governor’s Email click HERE
TWEETER HANDLES
@GovRonDeSantis, @Kathleen4SWFL, @Paul_Renner, @Sen_Albritton, @SenatorAMR, @SenTomWright,
@dennisbaxley, @ChuckClemons21 @RepMikeGrant, @FLGOPMajority, @FLSenateGOP
100%
I found a very interesting reference in a 2017 Nat'l Assn of Sec's of State briefing on cybersecurity. (https://www.nass.org/sites/default/files/NASS-briefing-election-cybersecurity-preps-2017-2018.pdf) Maybe you've seen it. At the bottom of page 2 it states:
What Else Will Combat Foreign Threats? Keeping elections state and locally-run (decentralized),
keeping voting equipment offline and leaving voting machines unnetworked, keeping voter lists clean and up-to-date and convincing more Americans to simply take part in voting and volunteering at the polls.
Imagine that. An NASS briefing that suggests something that would work. I sent it to FL officials in one of my many letters. They, of course, ignored me. So we continue to communicate. :)