Who makes the voting machines that are used in Florida? Is there a conflict of interest, and most importantly, is there potential for manipulation? It is increasingly obvious that the voters of Florida are losing confidence in the democratic system. As each vote is reviewed as a fraud or an invalid vote, what will the repercussions of this throwback from the year 2000 presidential election affect the 2020 elections?

As the mid-term elections come to an end, and the numbers from this election are discussed and dissected by the media, there seems to be a missing link between the numbers and how they are calculated. To answer the first question, the two vendors of voting machines used in the state of Florida are, Dominion and ES&S. These companies are subsidiaries of a well-established company called Diebold, a manufacturer of bank vaults, ATMs and other security-related products.

The answer to the second question, Diebold is a large contributor to both the Republican and Democratic parties. Since 2000, the evidence of flaws in the touch voting machines was widely reported but the company and their machines are still in use in Florida. Governor Scott, a businessman by nature, kept these machines in his state knowing the flaws. In fact, he was so very much aware of them that he wanted to have them impounded this election cycle.

Out of the 67 counties in Florida, 16 use Dominion and the others employ ES&S. Unfortunately, there are design flaws that were apparent in the 2000 election and have yet to be addressed. The primary issue is the machines ability to change or add more votes to a ballot rendering the vote invalid. This is a software issue and Maria I. Mattews, Esq., Director, Division of Elections, sends out updated software to the Supervisors of Elections frequently (on Governor Scott's letterhead), the last update was sent on July 27, 2018, approving the use of the new version "if they so desire." Can this mean some counties, for example, Broward County, decided the update was not necessary?

The tests made for voting machines throughout the state are not made on actual machines used but a prototype that represents various machines used in the State of Florida. Governor Scott has approved these prototypes for every election cycle.

Besides the fact that hacking into software systems has happened with some of our countries most secure systems, there is also the claims of voter fraud. This falls along the lines of voter manipulation. It starts with a candidate questioning the validity of the voting process before the votes are counted. Questioning the validity of a voter, their right to vote, or their ability to use the right judgment to vote. The scare tactic used to keep many voters from casting a vote has become as common as it was in the early 1960s.

As the media becomes the whipping post for the political candidates that are not happy with their coverage, it makes it impossible for an average voter to see through the rhetoric of this age of social media and "fake news." What are the best places for a voter to go to learn about the candidates, their issues, and the important topics that affect their day to day lives? In my experience, a voter will never go wrong with reading the information from their local newspaper. A journalist must go through a rigorous process to get an article published. It isn't like a blog that a person spouts personal opinions and calls them facts or even this article, which is fact-checked but not to the extent of a newspaper article. The Orlando Sentinel for an example discussed the bundled amendments in great detail. This newspaper has several well-informed journalists that did their best to bring all the issues of this mid-term election to their reading public.

The democratic process is the cornerstone of our freedom. If we don't check and double check the people that are responsible for a fair and honest election, we are giving away the freedoms with every election that is manipulated by voter suppression, faulty voting machines, and unreadable or undecipherable ballots.