Depending on which poll you choose, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is either slightly trailing or slightly leading Rick Scott in his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate.
Well, keep the poll away from this bit of news.
CNN is reporting that Nelson, 75, said that Russians have already "penetrated" the voter registration systems of some Florida counties ahead of the 2018 midterms.
First of all, thanks, Russia, for creating a situation where we have to read the phrases "Bill Nelson" and "penetrated" in the same sentence.
Second, are we really all that surprised that the former Soviets are allegedly trying to mess with our systems?
Florida Department of State spokesperson Sarah Revell — who said that "state and local election officials have taken steps to ensure the security and integrity of our elections" — told CNN that she "has received zero information from Sen. Nelson or his staff that support his claims."
"Additionally, the department has received no information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that corroborates Senator Nelson's statement and we have no evidence to support these claims," Revell added. "If Sen. Nelson has specific information about threats to our elections, he should share it with election officials in Florida."
We'll update this post as more, hopefully less gross, information becomes available.
This article appears in Aug 9-16, 2018.