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Who is Emily Grover? Florida girl, 18, faces 16-year jail for hacking 'homecoming queen' contest with mom's help

Emily and her assistant principal mother Laura Rose Carroll are accused of hacking student school accounts to cast fake votes and make her win the contest

ESCAMBIA, FLORIDA: A Florida teenager will be charged as an adult in a bizarre case of election rigging. No this is not the Presidential election, but rather a homecoming vote at her school. Emily Rose Grover, who was 17 at the time of her arrest in March, turned 18 in April and is thus eligible to be tried as an adult. 

Grover and her mother, Laura Rose Carroll, have been hit with a host of felony charges for hacking the Escambia County School District. They were arrested after officials reported unauthorized access into hundreds of student accounts, sparking off an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

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That investigation led to Grover and her mother, who were found to have accessed the records to rig the election. The pair is currently out on bail, with Carroll having paid a $6,000 bond, while Grover's bond was set at $2,000. Both have denied the charges, and are due to be arraigned on May 14. 

Who is Emily Grover?

Not much is known about Grover, we couldn't find a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account associated with her. Her mother, Carroll is the Assistant Principal at Bellview Elementary School. In October 2020, Grover was crowned homecoming queen at Tate High School. According to Wiki About World, Carroll began teaching in the district in 2000 before she became an assistant principal in 2015.

How was Grover caught?

In October 2020, the district's Election Runner application flagged hundreds of votes in the homecoming election at Tate High School as fraudulent. Immediately, officials contacted the FDLE, who begun investigating the matter. Around the same time, "the district's student council coordinator was notified Grover had allegedly talked about using her mom's FOCUS account," Pensacola News Journal (PNJ) reported. FOCUS is the student data system used by parents, teachers, and students to access grades and health records information. 

Putting the two pieces of information together, officials found that Grover had indeed hacked the system. Investigators found that she used FOCUS to access other student's profiles, and cast votes to help Grover win the homecoming election. From the same IP address, she cast 117 votes, and a total of 246 from Carroll's cellphone and computers. Investigators also collected around nine statements from students and a teacher, who "said they either heard Grover talking about accessing the account or watched her log onto it over the course of four years." 

As a result of the investigation, Carroll has been suspended from her job, but it wasn't clear if she has been fired. Grover has been expelled from the school, and her title renounced. The pair attempted to contest the expulsion, but it was upheld, The Daily Mail reported. The duo was also been charged with offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices (third-degree felony), unlawful use of a two-way communications device (third-degree felony), criminal use of personally identifiable information (third-degree felony) and conspiracy to commit these offenses (first-degree misdemeanor)

"Juvenile (court) cannot do anything or supervise them after they become 18. And so it just makes better sense to move them into adult court where they can be supervised effectively," Assistant State Attorney John Molchan told PNJ. Since she will be tried as an adult, Grover faces up to 16 years in jail if convicted. News of the story has taken social media by storm, with many shocked that Grover could face such serious consequences.

POTUS comparisons swarm Twitter

Naturally, when 'election rigging' was mentioned, many users began comparing Grover's situation to that of the 2020 Presidential Election. One user responded to the story by tweeting, "If you rig a homecoming you get busted BUT you rig a presidential election nothing happens!" Another said, "there was more investigation into this homecoming queen election than there was in the 2020 presidential election..."

"Seriously? We’re wasting taxpayer dollars prosecuting a girl for rigging a homecoming election???" another asked. One user commented, "Florida finds another way to FLUNK an election integrity test. Here school employee mom helps her daughter steal the Homecoming Queen Crown."

One user clearly saw the funny side of the story and tweeted, "Some girl and her mom rigged a high school homecoming election and each could be given a 16-year sentence. High school. Homecoming. LMAOOOO imagine answering the “what are you in for?” question and saying “I rigged my high school homecoming to become queen". Another joked, "Lol only in Florida could a teenager attempt to rig a homecoming election". "I remember people running for high school president, Associate Student Body positions, homecoming queen and king, etc. School activities that you don't take seriously in the real world. This is mindboggling that someone is going to real world court over a homecoming election" said one user.

It is important to note that Grover and her mother aren't being charged for rigging the election, but hacking into the system and illegally using log-in information.