The 2020 presidential race could come down to Florida. But unless drastic changes are made, election advocates believe the next presidential vote count in the Sunshine State will be yet another mess. They say that Florida in 2018 once again served as an example of how not to run an election. Their concerns involve voting machines vulnerabilities and partisan election officials who lack necessary qualifications. And those officials repeatedly demonstrate that winning seems to be more important to them than democracy. It doesn’t have to be that way, critics say. Florida has laws on the books that would allow it to run clean and transparent elections. They just aren’t being applied. Election management continues to be a problem and it is lacking uniformity in procedures and practices. The destruction of ballot images during primary and general elections in 2018 and in previous elections in the state is a major issue for concerned Florida voters, who have filed a lawsuit against the state to ensure all Florida voting officials follow the law.
Associate Director Kitty Garber of Florida Fair Elections Coalition believes Florida needs to make fundamental changes to its election system if the state is to avoid another disaster in 2020. First for Garber is the problem of partisan election administrations. Unlike many other states, Florida elects its county supervisors of elections, as well as the secretary of state, who is responsible for running the state’s elections.
“We need to have people who have some credentials and experience running elections instead of just people who are capable of getting elected,” Garber told WhoWhatWhy. “Every time I say that to someone, they say, ‘Well, that’s not happening.’”
Garber acknowledges there are some county supervisors of elections who do a great job running their election departments. Garber considers Volusia County’s supervisor of elections, Lisa Lewis, an outstanding elections supervisor in Florida.
Full Article: Election advocates eye Florida fixes for 2020 | Salon.com.