After Secretary of State Ken Detzner called into question some counties' election equipment, local supervisors are expressing apprehension about the condition of Florida's electronic voter-registration system.
"We're concerned that the (state) system could fail, and that's not just a few counties with poor equipment, that's the entire state that has to be maintained during an election," Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said. "If that should fail, we all fail."
Holland said the condition of the state's voter-registration system was raised by members of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections as Detzner appeared at their conference Monday at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando.
Holland, the president of the association, said any upgrades to county equipment must go "hand in hand" with a modernization of the statewide system.
"Updating one without the other can still cause catastrophic failure," Holland said.
Holland said the concerns of the supervisors grew after the statewide system went down last week and they weren't offered any explanation for the outage.
Asked about the supervisors' concerns and the status of the statewide database, Department of State spokeswoman Brittany Lesser said the system was down for regular maintenance.
"After just completing a successful election, we are planning for future elections by performing upgrades on the Florida Voter Registration System," Lesser said in an email. "Like any large database, the Florida Voter Registration System requires regular maintenance. The supervisors of elections were made aware of this maintenance, and we look forward to continuing to work with them to ensure Floridas elections run smoothly."
The state system was put on line in 2006 providing a central voter-registration system.
On the local level, Detzner expressed concern in November that decade-old voting equipment, particularly tabulators set up at voting precincts, might need to be replaced or upgraded in about 30 counties. He hasn't specified the counties.
It's up to local county commissions, some still smarting from a rush to bring in state-of-the-art electronic touch-screen equipment after the state's controversial 2000 election, to fund the bulk of replacement costs.
Holland said Detzner could push county commissions to act by decertifying aged equipment.
THE SCRUTINY OF JEB BEGINS
"Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem," screamed the headline on a Bloomberg Politics story published early Thursday morning. And so begins the process that every potential presidential candidate has to consider when he or she is deciding whether to run -- having reporters use a microscope to examine every facet of one's life.
In this case, the article mostly focused on the former Florida governor's foray into private equity. It raises two questions: Is Bush really going to run for president, given his financial moves? (A spokeswoman told Bloomberg that those wouldn't affect his decision.)
And would that work be as much of a problem for Bush as it was for Romney, the Republican who lost to incumbent President Barack Obama two years ago?
"Until now, many people have assumed that Bushs greatest challenge would be dispelling the perception among Republican primary voters that hes a moderate in a party dominated by right-wing conservatives," wrote Joshua Green and Miles Weiss. "In the wake of Romneys bruising 2012 loss, however, Bushs overseas funds, mysterious investors, and foreign entanglements could prove harder to overcome. As a budding private equity mogul, hes begun to resemble a Mini-Mitt."
American Bridge, a liberal super-PAC, blasted the story out to reporters in an email that also highlighted other articles about Bush's financial interests.
"These headlines are a look back at the scrutiny Bush's business record faced in 2014, but the Twitter reaction to today's Bloomberg story is a window into the future questions the governor can expect in 2015 and beyond if he decides to run for president," the email said, before helpfully including some of the tweets in reaction to the story.
NO PRESSURE HERE, OF COURSE
Include Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a proud University of Florida alum, among those caught by surprise last week when the school bought out the contract of Colorado State University football coach Jim McElwain so he could call the shots from the sideline in Gainesville.
"He wasn't in the short list. I don't know much about him. I like what I've seen so far," Putnam said Tuesday after a Chritmas tree lighting ceremony in the Capitol.
Putnam then paused and, showing the alumni pressure McElwain now faces, half-seriously, half-jokingly added, "We've paid enough, he better be good."
TWEET OF THE WEEK: "St. Leo poll shocks the nation by finding most Florida Republicans want @JebBush to run for prez. Shocking I tell you, shocking. #sillypoll" -- Crowley Report (@crowleyreport)
