A Florida man faces felony charges after he hacked into the state’s voter database and changed Gov. Ron DeSantis' home address.
The Republican Governor went to cast an early vote on Monday around 3pm but found that his address had been changed to West Palm Beach rather than his mansion in Tallahassee by an unknown person.
DeSantis alerted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate, saying he did not authorize the change in address.
State investigators were able to find the IP address used to change the governor’s address and it traced back to 20-year-old Anthony Steven Guevara of Naples.
Florida man Anthony Guevara, 20, of Naples was arrested on Tuesday for changing Gov. Ron DeSantis' voting registration address. The Republican Governor went to cast an early vote on Monday around 3pm but found that his address had been changed to West Palm Beach rather than his mansion in Tallahassee by an unknown person
Guevara showed special agents who arrived to the home how he changed the governor’s address, according to NBC2.
He said he changed the governor’s address to that of a YouTube personality in West Palm Beach.
He had also accessed the voter registrations of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Senator Rick Scott but made no changes to them, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
He had also accessed the voter registrations of Michael Jordan (left) and LeBron James (right) but made no changes to them, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
A view of long lines to vote at The Centre of Palm Harbor in Palm Harbor, Florida on Tuesday above
A digital forensic examiner found that Guevara’s Google searches on his laptop included 'Florida My Vote' and 'Florida Governor'.
Guevara was arrested at his home on Tuesday night and charged with unauthorized access of a computer and altering a voter registration without consent.
As for DeSantis, he was able to change his address at the polling place and voted.
Mark Earley, the Leon County Supervisor of Elections, said the hack wasn’t sophisticated and that plenty of voters come in realizing they have the whole address on file
'We do have people who show up to vote and they've forgotten that they made an address change or they forgot to do an address change or they know they have to do an address change, and they do it there on the spot,' he said to Fort Myrs News-Press.
'It just takes ... 30 seconds to get it to happen. And then they're issued a ballot and vote in a normal manner.
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