Florida Election Tools Disabled Amid Federal Agent Sightings
VR Systems disabled Florida voter lookup tools due to security flaws while election officials reported federal agent activity at early voting sites.
Early voting for the midterm elections in Florida has been disrupted by technical outages and reports of federal law enforcement presence at polling sites. VR Systems, a Tallahassee-based elections technology firm, disabled public-facing voter lookup tools across several counties on Wednesday morning. The company took the action following warnings from OpenAI and the PHP Foundation regarding critical security vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language.
VR Systems COO Ben Martin stated that the shutdown does not affect voter rolls or the ability to vote, although it prevents voters from accessing polling locations and sample ballots online. OpenAI characterized the PHP flaws as one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory due to the language's widespread use.
Simultaneously, election officials in Leon and Monroe counties reported immigration enforcement activity at early voting sites. In Leon County, U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles were spotted at a polling place on Monday. In Monroe County, reports emerged of masked federal agents conducting a stop at a Key Largo polling site. Both county supervisors of elections have contacted the FBI, noting that federal law generally prohibits armed federal agents from operating near polling places.
