When a U.S. Customs and Border Protection truck was spotted recently near a Leon early voting site, local voters raised concerns.
But Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley says the officers weren't monitoring voters at the polling station. After investigating the matter with the FBI, Early says he learned the officers were heading out of state and hoped they might be able to vote before leaving Florida.
It's illegal for federal agents, including immigration and customs enforcement and border patrol to monitor polling sites. And Earley says he believes this was an isolated incident.
But he says it has stirred conversation in the community. While some are concerned about voter intimidation, others are worried about people who aren’t citizens casting a ballot.
Earley says he’d like for everyone to take a breath.
"Everybody calm down please. OK. It's extremely rare that noncitizens ever vote," Earley emphasized.
A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan public opinion research group, found that overall, voters have a widespread confidence that intimidation tactics at polling places will be stopped and roughly half of voters are confident election systems are safe from hacking.
But Susan MacManus, a political scientist out of Florida, says concern over artificial intelligence in campaigns and polling is a growing worry for voters.
"I think more than the ICE situation is really concerning particularly younger voters who are fearful that there's this downside to even bothering to vote because there's a corruption there in terms of how they are finding out about it with AI being misused,” MacManus said.
MacManus says the technology can create a distrust at the polls and even lead to voter apathy.
"It certainly can effect somebody’s willingness to vote if they think that every ad that they've seen is false and fake, it can feed into what we already see nationally as low levels of trust against big government, big media, big business, high tech,” MacManus said.
But officials, like Earley, confirm that the elections process is trustworthy.
"It is absolutely safe to go vote at the polls in person. You can trust vote by mail just make sure you get your ballots to us on time before the end of election day here in Florida and you know its the 250th anniversary of the United States, get out there, celebrate our democracy and our nation by voting and don't be afraid to vote,” Earley said.
Early voting ends on October 31 and election day is November 3.
