Polk County, FL – Recently, Polk County Citizens Defending Freedom (CCDF-Polk) submitted a public records request to the Polk County Supervisor of Elections office seeking to obtain a Cast Vote Records (CVR) report. This request went unanswered and shortly after, the Supervisor of Elections for Polk County, Lori Edwards, was quoted in a local newspaper, The Ledger, stating that the Elections Systems & Software equipment the county uses is unable to generate Cast Vote Records. CVRs are electronic records of voters’ selections produced by vote capture devices. Election results are produced by tabulating the collection of CVRs. Forty-two of Florida’s sixty-seven counties already provide these records to their citizens, forty-one which use the same tabulating and ballot scanner equipment as Polk County. CCDF-Polk, who has established a working relationship with Lori Edwards, looked into the matter further.
“There are different processes in different counties,” Ms. Edwards told The Ledger. “Some of them have it, and some of them don’t.” The paper also reported, “Edwards said her office did not create such a record, which is not required by Florida law. She said it isn’t possible to generate one after the election.” Given that a CVR is a record of voters’ selections, it would therefore only be available after an election. After a CVR is generated, it is then used to audit elections, detect irregularities, and supply more transparency to voters. In simple terms, CVRs are the tabulation of all votes cast in an election, and this system is what is used on election night to supply the results; therefore, Polk County machines can run them. Citizens of Polk County have voiced concerns that their election leaders are not being transparent.
After multiple follow up requests, CCDF-Polk finally received the CVRs for 2022 and 2021 but have yet to receive the requested CVR for the 2020 election. If, according to Ms. Edwards, “it isn’t possible to generate one after the election” how was her office able to fulfill the CVR requests for 2021 and 2022? As our citizens know by now, CCDF-USA does not back down from issues, nor allow our elected officials to be unresponsive. CCDF-Polk is working diligently to obtain answers, keeping a sharp eye on this situation as it develops and working around the clock to protect Polk County citizens’ votes.
If you are interested in learning more about Cast Vote Records, please visit the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards & Technology at: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.1500-103.pdf