Franklin County agrees to pay for increased security for local voting system

Franklin County commissioners have agreed to loan the local elections office 6000 dollars for the next month or so to pay for increased cybersecurity in Florida’s elections .

Supervisor of Elections Heather Riley said the state recently agreed to accept 19 million dollars in federal funding to increase security of the state's election system and are using the money to implement a statewide networking security monitoring system.

The setup will cost about 6000 dollars but the federal money wont be available till July, so Franklin County has agreed to pay the setup costs and get reimbursed next month.

There is some pressure to get the system set up quickly as the Florida primaries are in late August.

Reilly said the system will also require a monthly monitoring fee which will cost between 7 and 11 thousand dollars a year but that will be part of her proposed budget and doesn't need to be funded immediately.

She said the first year costs of the program will also be reimbursed but after that the expense will fall to local taxpayers.

Reilly said the money is also paying for 5 inspectors to visit all of Florida's election' offices – one has already visited Franklin County and will issue a list of recommendations to increase local election security in the near future.

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