‘Shortsighted’: Florida election officials say new rule could threaten their jobs

ORLANDO, Florida — Florida election officials are warning that an obscure new ballot rule being put in place by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis could force them to break state law or face removal from office.

A wave of exasperated election supervisors — meeting at their summer conference — vented to top officials from the Department of State about a recently rolled out proposal that they contend would violate the right to a secret ballot. They also said they worried it would put them in the crosshairs of activists who continually question the validity of elections.

“I deal every day with a bunch of wackadoodles in this state,” said Alan Hays, the Republican elections supervisor from Lake County. “We need clarification. These wackadoodles will take one little bitty thing like that and blow it out of proportion.”

The rule is being proposed to create a uniform way of disposing of “spoiled” ballots and prevent them from being tabulated, said Joseph Van de Bogart, who is general counsel for the Department of State and had worked in the past on poll watching and election monitoring for Florida Republicans.

Secretary of State Cord Byrd, who was sitting in the audience as local supervisors ripped into state officials, likened the issue to a “family squabble,” but also maintained that it was important to have local election officials handle ballots the same regardless of the size of the county.

Under Florida law, if a person makes a mistake on their ballot when they are voting at a polling place they can ask for a new one. The new rule — which is part of a recently revised procedures manual — then calls on poll workers to cut off the four corners of the “spoiled” ballot and to place it in a sealed envelope.

There is a similar but not identical rule that has been put in place for voters who show up on Election Day with a mail-in ballot that they want to submit in person.

Several supervisors, who said they had pointed out problems with the rule previously, questioned how poll workers could cut off the corners of the ballot without seeing the choices of the voter. Florida’s Constitution guarantees a right to a secret ballot.

“You do not touch a ballot that has voter marks on it,” said Mark Earley, the Leon County elections supervisor.

Van de Bogart did say at one point that the Department of State did not agree with the legal argument that the secret ballot law applied to “spoiled” ballots.”

Other supervisors expressed concerns that voters would start questioning what was happening if they saw poll workers cutting off the corners.

Joyce Griffin, the elections supervisor for Monroe County, pleaded with state election officials to rethink their idea and admit it was “shortsighted.” She asked why they couldn’t just let voters rip the spoiled ballot in half and then place it in a sealed envelope.

When Van de Bogart stuck by the proposed rule Griffin responded that “now you’ve declared war” and vowed to speak out about the issue with the media and with leaders in both political parties.

Several supervisors said they were fearful that if they did not follow the new rule that it would give a reason for DeSantis to remove them from office. DeSantis has greatly expanded the use of the power to suspend local elected officials and early in his time in office removed the Palm Beach County elections supervisor.

The back-and-forth between supervisors and state election officials is a reminder of the ongoing tension that has occurred as DeSantis pushed to change Florida’s election laws. While DeSantis and other Florida Republicans have given high marks to local election officials for their handling of the 2020 and 2022 elections they have still pushed ahead with a long line of changes that many supervisors have said were unnecessary and burdensome.

DeSantis did refuse requests to do a forensic audit of the 2020 elections that saw former President Donald Trump win the state by 3 percentage points. Several election supervisors attending the conference wore buttons with the words Elections Denier in bold red letters. But the full text of the button read: “Florida Elections are the gold standard. If you are a denier you couldn’t be more wrong!”