Election Special: Eye to Eye with Katherine Harris

What a Difference Ten Years Makes!

(with apologies to my Amherst friends)

A Proud Mount

Three days into the contested 2000 Presidential election and 35-day recount, I proposed a business idea to Verisign: use the trusted authority of its own authentication & digital certificate technology and the DNS architecture of newly acquired Network Solutons to bring integrity to voting.  Verisign hired me to develop the concept as VoteSecure (TM), an internet-enabled voter registration, balloting and tabulation solution.

By December the votes had been counted and by January a new President sworn in [remember?].  Our work was in full swing: we built Verisign Ventures - a skunkworks shop - and hustled like crazy. In no time I was dealing with the state capitals and I found myself meeting with big Washington players like EDS, UniSys, IBM, Booz Allen, Diebold, et alii.

The technology is one thing.  State law and bureaucracy - as we learned during the recount - is entirely another, and those folks in state legislature were hustling too, to define, interpret and pass new laws (it's all they know how to do).  Meanwhile, the State Secretaries of State - Katherine Harris and her 49 counterparts - convened at the US Capitol in March to examine the nationwide mess, and I was right up front and riveted for Ms. Harris' luncheon address to the group, upstairs at Bullfeathers on Capitol Hill. 

The woman they loved to hate: Ms. Harris was intensely charismatic, and all business.  As she was swarmed afterward, I made my way downstairs and was preparing to leave when a young, energetic aide on her Tallahassee staff tapped my shoulder at the coat check window to ask if I knew whether C-SPAN's studio was close enough to walk to.

So picture this pas de deux: as I began to recommend cabbing, I turned and our eyes met: Ms. Harris was struggling into a fine, tailored coat and had need of a third hand to hold her handbag - and my own hand was open.  "Why thank you!" she said as, thinking quickly, I reached gallantly for the Fendi purse with my left hand while fishing a business card from my shirt pocket with my right.  As Ms. Harris' own bejeweled hand emerged from her coat sleeve I placed my card in it and made my pitch: "Tom Porter, Ms. Harris, working for Verisign to design secure voting technology and failsafe authentication systems for the state-capital-to-county-registrar architecture.  We'd love to be in touch with your office!"

My Favorite Secretary of State

We spoke for another 45 seconds or so as I walked the Florida Secretary of State and her aide to the curb, saw them into a cab, and caught my breath.  Tallahassee and I did have 3 more conversations that spring, as well as an exchange by post with the Secretary, who kindly enclosed a memento for me to share with y'all. >>>

The Porter family name comes from ancestors who must have carried bags for the aristocracy.  My heritage prepared me well for this encounter with the Worth Avenue Fendi and its dynamite owner.

"See you at the Orchid Ball, Katherine....