The good, the bad and the ugly of technology throughout the campaign

Election season is mercifully winding down, and as Election Day awaits on Tuesday, I’m hearing Christmas music in our favorite stores.

While troubling (it’s far too soon), it means that in Tallahassee (at least), Daryl Parks cons Corey Simon ads will also end their relentless run.

What’s up with them running back to back ads every day?

Big picture – what the hell happened to 2024?

This year flew by so fast; The football season is already over and the Seminoles and Gators have a combined five wins. Florida State has only one of the worst records (for last year’s ACC champions) since I was born.

Miami is also undefeated.

Strange times are upon us, and this time of year, all eyes around the nation turn to the Sunshine State in one way or another.

Hurricanes, football or elections, Florida has it all.

That said, it’s time for my annual election tech column, and I want to remind you that election season is also hacking season.

Do not click on anything or give money to anyone without a thorough verification.

This week’s cybersecurity tagline – “Trust nothing in November.”

To review, hackers use all of our communication tools, launching phishing and malware attacks from text, social platforms, email, mobile phones and websites.

Best practice is to keep your passwords, banking information, birthday and other personal information to yourself. Is someone from the Harris or Trump campaign calling? 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, make sure you are on a legitimate party or candidate website.

Hackers target us all.

In Georgia, there there were reports last week of a foreign nation appearing behind an attempted violation of the website where voters request absentee ballots.

National and regional cyber defenses are robust, so we usually see them as probes for weaknesseswith our enemies creating a lot of anti-democracy or anti-candidate rhetoric.

Let’s not forget what motivates foreign hackers, as we just mentioned, and it’s not always about monetization. They also want to disrupt elections and cause chaos in our democracy. We have seen in the last few days that the alleged Chinese hackers have attacked Donald Trump’s campaign.

We also see the Russians back to their old tricks (as in 2016), trying to wreak havoc online by turning Americans against each other.

Last month, Russian hackers aimed at the Kamala Harris campaign with a string of fake videos.

Then reports of more fake videos of destroyed ballots in crucial battleground states. Law enforcement and election authorities quickly intervened before the fake news spread too far.

Remember that our enemies have entire departments dedicated to creating fake social media accounts and spreading fake news. Everyone is working overtime this week.

We could spend all day on the negative uses of technology, but there are positives too.

I hit the ground running 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 a position?

Welch: “I ran for office in 2020 because, quite simply, I wanted to make my community better. I know it sounds cliché, and in a way it is, but I think the emphasis should be placed on the sincerity of such a statement. In my case, I really don’t care about the notoriety that comes with the chosen feature, but rather the actual results.

“I feel like I’ve had tremendous results in really getting things done.

“The best example is the NE Park, for which we made a campaign priority in 2020; we broke ground on 10/16, 10 years ahead of schedule and through countless obstacles.

“I think if honest, genuine people are willing to run the gauntlet of a campaign, you can get good, nonpartisan, meaningful public improvements, at least locally.”

BD: What technology is central to your campaign?

BW: “My main media consultant is Kyle Frost and his company, Red Hills Media, who built our website (from scratch) and handles all production and social and multimedia management of the campaign, including graphic design, social media marketing, fundraising, etc. .

“Kyle uses the Adobe Create Cloud suite, including Photoshop for creating campaign graphics, Premiere Pro for producing video ads and Lightroom for photo editing. Python scripts handle data collection, analysis, reporting, and data visualization.

“This includes calculating the shortest routes for placing signs, tracking the number of contributors and unique contributions, or quickly calculating money raised, spent and cash on hand using campaign finance reports.

“We use the most efficient technologies available to produce the cleanest and most impactful. I would tell you that our use of social media and campaign management techniques make us one of the most effective 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 against those who threaten our way of life, we must all work together, not against each other.

Use it as a PSA to all those keyboard warriors and social media stragglers, especially hackers.

Today, I salute the brave people who seek public office and the public life that comes with it. For those who won, congratulations! We appreciate your commitment to serve.

The bottom line is: let’s get out and vote so we can get back 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 USA!

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