Inside: Man charged with hacking into voter database and changing DeSantis’ home address.

A Florida man has been charged with hacking into an online voter registration database and changing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ address.

Anthony Steven Guevara, 20, also accessed the voter registrations of U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and basketball legend Michael Jordan, according to a statement from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, but did not make any changes.

The arrest on Tuesday night came amid reports of renewed foreign attacks on election systems across the nation.

Florida officials had stepped up their security measures after elections offices in at least two counties were accessed by Russian hackers in 2016, but state and federal officials said there was no evidence the hackers altered any voter data. Yet now Guevara has been charged with doing just that from his computer in Naples.

DeSantis’ changed address was discovered when the governor went to cast an early vote on Monday and was informed his addresswas listed on Pretty Lane in west West Palm Beach rather than the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. The governor successfully voted, officials said.

The Leon elections office was able to locate the IP address, the numerical label assigned to each device connected to the internet, in which the registration change was made.

Secretary of State Laurel Lee said the suspect used publicly accessible voter data. Guevara is accused of using the Leon County supervisor of elections website tomake the change.

“Our systems are secure,” Lee said in a prepared statement .“There has been no breach to the Florida Department of State’s systems.”

The governor’s office did notre turn a message seeking comment.

Daniel A. Smith, political science chair at the University of Florida and an elections expert, said the news was proof that “the system works.”

“If you can find one person changing one voter registration form, you’re going to notice a systemic attempt to alter registration information,” Smith said. “It’s like trying to bankrupt Walmart by stealing a pack of gum every time you go in. It’s a crime. But it’s not going to disable the system.”

FDLE agents identified Guevara and arrested him at his home after a search warrant Tuesday night, with the help from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

Guevara was charged with unauthorized access of a computer and altering a voter registration without consent and sent to the Collier County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

“I am proud of the quick and detailed work of our agents on this case and appreciate the hard work of the offices of State Attorneys Amira Fox and Jack Campbell,” FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen said in a statement. “FDLE is committed to ensuring the voting rights of Florida citizens are protected, and we will continue to work with our local, state and federal partners in ensuring the security of our elections.”

The arrest may be the first major election security incident in Florida since the 2016 spearphishing attack, first revealed in the Mueller Report in March 2019.

Hackers, who the report said were tied to Russian intelligence, pretended to be fromthe elections equipment vendor VR Services and sent out emails to more than 120 email accounts used by Florida county elections officials in 2016.

Only two counties actually opened the emails and clicked on the attached link.

Reports in 2019 indicated Washington County was one of the two counties, and journalist Bob Woodward’s book published in September reported the other was St. Lucie County.

Woodward also reported that the hackers installed malware on computers in those elections offices, though there was no indication them al ware was activated.

The hackers were “in a position” to potentially alter voter rolls, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio later said after a briefing, but it didn’t appear they actually did.

Following the hack, Florida was one of thefirst states to install intrusion detection sensors on election equipment. Elections officials are also receiving reports on potential threats from the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, created in 2018.

In 2019, DeSantis joined the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, a multistate pact that makes it easier to track voter registrations across state lines, clean up voter rolls of deceased voters and reach out via mail to every eligible but unregistered voter in Florida.

Voter rolls are also constantly monitored, Orange County Elections Supervisor Bill Cowles has said, with every change documented when it took place and by which person.

Voters can check their voter registration status anytime online. Provisional ballots are available for anyone not on the rolls or who believe they should have been.