You’d like to think nobody is taking Donald Trump seriously when he talks of the election being “rigged.”
But many of his most ardent supporters appear to believe him – and apparently, some of those people live and vote here.
“We’ve already had some people questioning the voting equipment,” Indian River County Supervisor of Elections Leslie Swan said. “We’ve even had a few ask about George Soros and whether we’re using the Smartmatic voting machines.”
George Soros? Smartmatic voting machines?
For those who don’t know: The Internet and social media have been buzzing with rumors that Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire who staunchly supports progressive causes, is rigging the election through his controlling interest in Smartmatic, the company that manufactures the voting machines being used in 16 states.
There are only two problems with these rumors.
Soros not only does not control Smartmatic – his connection to the London-based corporation is that its chairman, Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, sits on the board of Soros’ Open Society Foundation – but Soros has never held any ownership stake in the company.
And secondly, Smartmatic says none of its voting technology is being used in any state during the 2016 U.S. elections.
And yet …
“People are asking,” Swan said. “A lot of times, people will come to our office to ask about the machines, but what they’re saying makes no sense.”
That’s because the machines utilized here work in conjunction with paper ballots, which, if the system fails or the count is disputed, can be used to verify the vote totals.
In fact, Swan said the cartridges from the voting machines and the paper ballots are transported separately, by different groups, from the polls to the election office to protect the integrity of the process.
“Nothing,” she said, “goes over the Internet.”
As for touch-screen machines, Swan said there’s only one at each early-voting site and Election Day polling place in the county, but they are designated for people who have disabilities that prevent them from using paper ballots.
She recalled only one person voting via touch screen in the past four years.
“Leslie Swan runs a first-rate operation,” said Indian River County Tax Collector Carole Jean Jordan, former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. “And we have a top-notch canvassing board that is very careful to not be political.”
She dismissed talk of voter fraud in Florida – again a swing state that could decide the presidential election – saying, “Sure, you have some glitches, but I haven’t seen any rigging.”
Even when there are controversies, such as the need to extend the registration deadline in the wake of a hurricane or questions about the validity of mail-in ballots, the Florida courts have been quick to step in.
Still, Trump continues to bang the election-is-rigged drum at his campaign stops, questioning the legitimacy of the system and undermining faith in the process.
So I put the question to Swan: Could you rig the vote if you wanted to?
“I’m sure there are some bad people out there, but we’ve got so many checks and balances,” Swan said. “It’s not only me. We have poll watchers. We have a canvassing board made up of a county commissioner, a county court judge and myself. And we have to sign off on the machine’s tabulations.
“After the election, there’s a state-mandated audit of one randomly selected race on the ballot,” she added. “The canvassing board has to count votes by hand to make sure our totals match the machines’ totals. Also, anybody can come in and see the ballots.
“Florida has come a long way.”
Maybe so, but Swan said she believes most of the suspicions about voter fraud in Florida are connected to registration rolls, not the casting and counting of ballots.
Even there, she said the system has improved – primarily through creation of a statewide voter registration data base.
“Since 2006, everything is verified through the state, using drivers licenses or Social Security numbers,” she said. “Voter registration is now monitored statewide, so if you move from one county to another, the state has a record of it.”
There is no national data base, however, so the system isn’t foolproof: Florida doesn’t know for certain that a voter who registers isn’t also registered in another state.
Republican Club of Indian River County president Tom Lockwood said he doesn’t discount the concerns raised by Trump. He said he can recall only “one or two instances” of voter irregularity here, but, “There are definitely some other areas of the country where things have happened that were very questionable.”
He is not alone in that belief.
According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in September, nearly half of registered American voters believe that voter fraud occurs “somewhat” or “very” often.
Fortunately, not here.
