WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Palm Seaside County supervisor of elections stated a volunteer arrested for stealing an encrypted coaching machine from her workplace by no means labored in latest elections, officers stated, and the machine contained solely pretend voter knowledge, posing no risk to election integrity.
John D. Panicci was arrested Saturday on theft fees after authorities stated he took the machine, referred to as an activator stick or thumb drive, throughout a ballot employee coaching session March 19 forward of the March 24 particular election in Home District 87.
In an unique interview with Florida’s Voice, Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Hyperlink stated the thumb drive is used statewide for coaching and accommodates fabricated voter names, addresses, and ID numbers for follow eventualities. Trainees follow on how one can change a voter’s deal with, directing somebody to the proper precinct or dealing with a voter who seems to have already voted.
“Even when this particular person have been in a position to break the encryption, all they’re going to get is made up names, made up info for the needs of giving numerous eventualities so there wasn’t an actual hazard associated to what he was in a position to get,” Hyperlink stated.
Hyperlink stated the workplace has a zero-tolerance coverage for any interference with elections. She stated trainers seen the machine lacking on the finish of the session as a part of routine tools checks earlier than the following class and that safety footage clearly confirmed Panicci taking it. Hyperlink stated he was instantly terminated and barred from working any future elections.
“He didn’t work this election,” Hyperlink stated of the March 24 election. “He didn’t have any entry to the database that was used for that election. So it was unaffected fully.”
She stated the identical was true for the March 10 elections. Panicci had no position in both.
The voter check-in system used at polling locations is intentionally separate from the standalone tabulation system that counts ballots and experiences outcomes, Hyperlink added. The check-in system has no web connection and no crossover with the voter database, by design.
The incident doesn’t meet any standards for a recall, recount or problem to the election outcomes, Hyperlink stated.
The workplace reported the theft to the Palm Seaside County Sheriff’s Workplace regardless of the dearth of any quick threat as a result of the machine was election-related materials. PBSO used the safety video to acquire arrest and search warrants. Detectives recovered the stick and different digital gadgets from Panicci’s dwelling.
“We’ve zero tolerance for something that’s going to have an effect on an election,” Hyperlink stated. “Whether or not you’re going to tamper with one thing, steal one thing from the coaching database, intimidate voters, be disruptive at a polling location. We’ve a zero tolerance coverage.”
Hyperlink stated she had no details about related incidents in different counties, noting that every of Florida’s 67 supervisors of elections handles coaching procedures otherwise.
In a message to voters, she burdened transparency and the effectiveness of the workplace’s safeguards.
“The vital factor is, that is one thing that we seen. We reported. We instantly terminated him,” Hyperlink stated. “He didn’t work the election. It had completely nothing to do with HD 87 with that particular election, or the March elections both, and the insurance policies and procedures we’ve in place, they work, and that’s the explanation we have been in a position to, by following these insurance policies and procedures that we had in place, we have been in a position to instantly determine that there was an issue, who it was, addressed it.”
“The vital message is that there’s zero tolerance for messing with elections in any manner,” she added.
