SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- U.S. intelligence reports of Russian hacking in the 2016 presidential election have sparked concerns about future elections.  

  • Voter confidence to be ensured in Seminole County
  • Vote to be secured through scanning ID’s

The Seminole County Supervisor of Elections says he’s taking as many steps as possible to prevent any interference in county elections.

Eloise Morton-Turner says she’s maintaining faith in local elections and is going to vote, but worries about local voter turnout.

''I’ve heard statements where people are saying it doesn’t make any difference now, or I’m not going to go out there to vote,'' said Morton-Turner.

''I think the voters are most concerned right now because they hear this noise about wow, maybe something happened in 2016 and could it happen in 2018,'' said Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Michael Ertel.

That’s why Ertel says he’s beefing up security at the county’s main elections building, requiring thumbprint access to rooms with critical voter information and installing extra network firewalls to prevent any attempts to hack into the county’s system.

''We’re building the “cyber moat” around our office to ensure the bad guys can’t get in and intrude into any of our election system.''

Ertel says Seminole County is taking an extra step of security not seen in other Central Florida counties, by scanning voters’ driver’s licenses or other form of identification with a tablet – which verifies their identity – before they can vote.   

''We need to ensure those voters who supported that candidate who may have not won, are comfortable that the candidate’s loss did not have anything to do with the process – but the politics of the issue,'' said Ertel.

Ertel says there’s no proof anyone was able to hack into voting systems anywhere in Florida in 2016.  But he says he’s still doing everything he can to prevent anyone from trying it this year.

''We have got to have faith in our county, our officials and our democracy,'' said Morton-Turner. ''I’m just hoping we can trust our system''.