Q&A of the Day – What’s changed at the Broward & PBC Supervisors of Elections offices?
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry...
What I want to hear from (Broward’s) SOE, which he has not said...we took all workers into a room, explained to them that ANYONE who does not follow handling of ballots to the letter, will IMMEDIATELY be arrested on-site and prosecuted to the full extent of the law...
Bottom Line: To be fair, we don’t know that didn’t happen. I get the sense in talking with Broward’s Election Supervisor, Peter Antonacci, that he’s a no-nonsense guy. But to your point, what has changed in Broward in Palm Beach County since the 2018 debacle and the DeSantis appointed Supervisors took over?
Broward:
- Complete review of the voter database and a new policy to notify via mail all voters who’ve become “inactive” by state standards with instructions on how to become active again if eligible
- A purging of inactive voters on Broward’s rolls
- New process for designing ballots that includes input from candidates and their campaigns
- Full inspection/maintenance of Broward’s voting machines (many of which failed during the 2018 elections)
Palm Beach County:
- Completely replaced it’s dated tabulation equipment
- Upgraded the security software to harden against the threat of hackers
- Increased the pay scale for poll workers
- Changed ballot design to “bubbles” instead of connecting lines
It’s possible there’s more to the story that hasn’t been made public but there you go. You can infer if you think enough has changed to restore confidence in our elections. From my perspective, it potentially is enough. The failures in Broward were primarily human error and violations of Florida Election law starting with the Supervisor herself. If we have the right people and systems in place – most of the issues should be addressed. In Palm Beach County it was first a failure of antiquated equipment compounded by an inadequate response by the Supervisor and subsequent violations of Florida Election law. Replacing the equipment and once again having the right people in the right places should also address those issues.
Both previous supervisors used the size of their offices and the number of votes to be tabulated as excuses for their failures. Excuses wouldn’t be acceptable regardless, but it also falls short of reality because Miami-Dade's election’s office is the largest in the state and hasn’t had the problems recently or historically that Broward and Palm Beach have. When I look at what’s changed, and I look at how Miami-Dade similarly conducts its elections, I have considerably more confidence about the prospect of elections in both counties than I did before the 2018 debacle. To be continued...