Novak responds

To the editor:

As a citizen of Marion County, I have a real concern about the future of our country and Marion County, as do many citizens: weather, critical race theory, cancel culture, out-of-control spending, or potholes on a road we drive daily.

All are especially important and legitimate concerns. My concern is the voting irregularities that seemed to have popped up across America in the 2020 general election.

If counties are using vote counting machines that have the capabilities to change or manipulate our votes, to me that is a real concern.

It is our constitutional right to have a fair, free, and secure elections, and its especially important to our democracy.

At the Nov. 8 commission meeting, I read several snippets from a document that best described my concerns in layman’s terms. The document is titled “Security Evaluation of ES&S Voting Machines and Election Management System” by the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

This report detailed a security analysis of voting systems manufactured by ES&S that goes into numerous exploitable vulnerabilities in nearly every component of the ES&S system.

This 10-week audit explains interactions between various software and hardware modules and the thousands of lines of source code that many run on hardware that have numerous security flaws.

As I stated at the meeting, my purpose was to provide information to the commissioners.

On a similar subject, I reported to the commissioners a discrepancy in the reported total number of votes cast and counted in the 2020 general election in Marion County.

Marion County reports 6,170 and the secretary of state reports 5,981 votes counted. (These numbers were obtained by a KORA and FOIA I requested.)

At the meeting, I asked the question, why there was a 189-vote difference between the two counts.

So why are commissioners using my presentation as their lame excuse to create a policy that will silence the voice of the people?

Chairman Randy Dalke later said he did not like to see what county election officer Tina Spencer had to put up with. What is that man talking about? Did my presentation strike a nerve?

All elected officials work for “we the people,” and if they are doing their jobs as they sit upon their royal thrones in the commission room, they would not have to be fearful to answer questions or engage in conversation with their constituents on any concerns.

Every commission agenda states: “Personnel and/or legal discussions may not be appropriate during open session.”

I believe expanding what they think inappropriate is an obvious introduction to the infringement of our 1st Amendment freedom of speech.

Dianne Novak
rural Tampa