Blake Dowling
Election season is mercifully ending, and as Election Day awaits Tuesday, I am hearing Christmas music in our favorite stores.
While unsettling (it’s way, way too soon), it means that in Tallahassee (at least), the Daryl Parks versus Corey Simon ads will also end their relentless run.
What’s the deal with them running back-to-back ads every single day?
Big picture — what the heck happened to 2024?
This year flew so fast; football season is already halfway over, with Seminoles and Gators having a combined five wins. Florida State has only one of those in the worst record (for last year’s ACC champs) since I was born.
Miami is also undefeated.
Strange times are afoot, and at this time of year, all eyes around the nation are looking toward the Sunshine State in one way or another.
Hurricanes, football or elections, Florida has it all.
That said, it is time for my annual column about election tech, and I want to remind you that election season is also hacking season.
Don’t click anything or give money to anyone without thorough vetting.
This week’s cybersecurity slogan — “Trust nothing in November.”
To review, hackers are weaponizing all our communication tools, launching phishing and malware attacks from text, social platforms, email, cellphones and websites.
The best practice is to keep your passwords, banking info, birthday, and other personal information to yourself. Is someone calling from the Harris or Trump campaign? Caller IDs can be spoofed; don’t give anyone a credit card number over the phone unless you call them.
The same goes for websites. Before sharing personal information, ensure you are on a legitimate party or candidate site.
Hackers target all of us.
In Georgia, there were reports last week of a foreign nation appearing behind an attempted breach of the website where voters request absentee ballots.
National and regional cyber protections are robust, so we typically see them as probes for weaknesses, with our enemies creating lots of anti-democracy or anti-candidate rhetoric.
Let’s not forget what motivates foreign hackers, as I just mentioned, and it is not always about monetization. They also wish to disrupt elections and cause chaos in our democracy. We’ve seen in recent days that alleged Chinese hackers have attacked the Donald Trump campaign.
We are also seeing the Russians back at their old tricks (as in 2016), attempting to cause online chaos, turning Americans against each other.
Last month, Russian hackers targeted the Kamala Harris campaign with a string of fake videos.
Then, reports of more fake videos of ballots destroyed in crucial battleground states. Law enforcement and election authorities moved in quickly before the fake news could spread too far.
Don’t forget our enemies have entire departments devoted to creating fake social media accounts and spreading bogus news. They are all putting in overtime this week.
We could spend all day on the negative uses of technology — but there are positives, too.
I hit the campaign trail to talk to a local candidate in North Florida — Brian Welch.
I spoke with Brian about his re-election campaign for Leon County Commissioner, District 4.
Blake Dowling: What motivated you to seek office?
Welch: “I ran for office in 2020 because, simply put, I wanted to make my community better. I know that sounds like a cliche, and in some ways, it is, but I think the emphasis needs to be put on the sincerity of such a statement. In my case, I really don’t care about the notoriety that comes with elected office but rather actual results.
“I feel like we have delivered tremendously on really getting things done.
“The best example is the NE Park, for which I made a campaign priority in 2020; we broke ground on 10/16, 10 years ahead of schedule and through myriad obstacles.
“I think if honest and genuine people are willing to run the gauntlet of a campaign, you can get good, non-partisan and meaningful public improvement, at least at the local level.”
BD: What technology is critical to your campaign?
BW: “My main media consultant is Kyle Frost and his company, Red Hills Media, which built our website (from scratch) and handles all of the campaign’s social and multi-media production and management, including graphic design, social media marketing, fundraising organization, etc.
“Kyle uses Adobe’s Create Cloud suite, including Photoshop for creating campaign graphics, Premiere Pro for producing video ads and Lightroom for photo editing. Python scripts handle data gathering, analysis, report generation, and data visualization.
“That includes calculating the shortest routes for sign placement, tracking number of unique contributors and contributions or calculating money raised, spent, and cash on hand quickly using campaign finance reports.
“We utilize the most user-friendly and effective technologies available to produce the cleanest and most impactful outcomes. I would tell you that our utilization of social media and campaign management techniques make us one of the most efficient operations in Tallahassee.”
To watch the full interview, please click here:
Elections are the cornerstone of our nation and technology plays a huge role.
To fight those threatening our way of life, we must all work together — not each other.
Use this as a PSA to all these keyboard warriors and social media ranters, particularly hackers.
Today, I salute the brave folks who seek public office and the public life that comes with it. For those who win, congrats! We appreciate your commitment to serve.
The upshot is — to get out and vote so we can return to focusing on college football. Will Florida get crushed by Georgia? Will Florida State find a way to lose again? We’ll find out later today.
Long live the USA!
