How Florida election supervisors are protecting the 2026 vote

TALLAHASSEE — President Donald Trump is again raising a litany of criticisms against the country’s election system, resurrecting his unproven assertion that the 2020 election was fraudulent, that mail-in ballots are ripe for abuse and that a large number of noncitizens are voting.

Florida’s governor and secretary of state have repeatedly assured that the state’s elections were secure and fair, dismissing critics calling for an additional audit.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has also pushed several election security bills, changing processes like how voters get mail-in ballots and requiring elections supervisors to clean up voter rolls annually.

But Trump’s refrains have fomented widespread skepticism in Florida and the U.S. about modern-day voting practices.

The Times/Herald reached out to elections supervisors in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Palm Beach counties to better understand how they handle common election security concerns. Each said security is top of mind for their offices.

Mail-in ballots

Trump has said that mail-in ballots are “inherently corrupt,” saying they can be manipulated for fraud. There’s little evidence for that, according to the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.

In Florida, mail ballots are sent only to voters who request them. Voters must provide identifying information in their mail ballot request, including their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Ballots cannot be forwarded by the U.S. Postal Service and are sent only to a voter’s specified address. Each envelope has a barcode specifically assigning it to a particular voter, allowing voters to track their ballot and see if it has been counted. It also allows the office to make sure that a person only votes once, a spokesperson for the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections said.

Once the office receives a voter’s ballot, it compares the signature on the envelope with the voter’s signature on file. If election workers reject the ballot because of a signature mismatch, the voter has a chance to fix the issue.

Trump himself has voted by mail, including during special elections earlier this year in Palm Beach County.

Voter lists

Another Trump assertion is that leagues of noncitizens are illegally registered to vote. He has repeated the claim while advocating for the SAVE America Act, which in part would require voter ID at the polls.

Florida already requires a valid photo ID for in-person voting.

County elections offices work year-round to ensure the voter registration list is accurate and up to date.

The state notifies the offices about deaths so the counties can remove voters from the rolls. The state also passes along information about voters with felony convictions, adjudications of mental incapacity and other eligibility issues.

The Department of State helps to verify voters’ citizenship eligibility. If a county elections office believes someone is ineligible to vote, it notifies that person and offers them a chance to clarify.

Craig Latimer, the supervisor of elections in Hillsborough County, said sometimes the state will send a list of people it thinks may not be citizens, but the office finds otherwise after further research.

The office also sometimes receives a list of names from “election enthusiasts” who have identified people who they claim are ineligible voters, Latimer said. He said his office will investigate those names if the accusation is credible.

Voting machines

Election skeptics have also erroneously claimedthat voting tabulation machines — including those specifically from Dominion Voting Systems — are rigged. Those assertions were never proven.

Floridians vote on paper ballots. Those paper ballots are then put through electronic machines that count the votes.

Paper ballots are kept for two years in Florida after an election in case they need to be referenced.

Before each election, elections offices conduct a logic and accuracy test to make sure the machines count correctly. Equipment is under constant video surveillance.

After the election, counties also conduct audits to make sure the count was correct. For some offices, those audit systems are totally separate from the initial tabulation machines and are also not connected to the internet.

“One of the reasons why we have safe elections in the entire country is because it’s so decentralized,” Latimer said, noting that there are more than 10,000 jurisdictions that count and conduct elections nationwide.

“To try and target that in some methodical way, I don’t know how you would ever do that,” he said.

Public accessibility

Members of the public can watch many parts of the voting process, including as elections offices test their tabulation machines and as they conduct the post-election audits.

Meetings of county canvassing boards, made up of elected officials who oversee parts of the election process, are also open to the public.

Palm Beach County’s elections office offers tours for people interested in better understanding the system. Elections supervisor Wendy Sartory Link said her office recently hosted about 15 separate tours, with groups ranging from about 20 to 40 people.

“We’ve done these for years,” she said. “Almost everybody does find it worth the time, no matter what their mindset is.”

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