Central Florida election leaders see smattering signs of voter intimidation

Central Florida elections supervisors vowed Tuesday that any attempts to intimidate voters will not be tolerated as scattered reports of trouble were already coming in.

Elections chiefs from Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake and Volusia counties gathered at the Orange County office in Orlando. Their main message was to avoid lines, bad weather and other potential problems on Election Day and take advantage of early voting, which lasts until Sunday in Orange, Seminole and Osceola and Saturday in Lake and Volusia.

“Who wants to wait, right?” said Seminole supervisor Chris Anderson. “That’s why you have a fast pass at Disney. … Well, there is no wait. There are no wait times right now at early voting locations.”

But Lisa Lewis, the elections supervisor in Volusia, had a more ominous concern. She warned against “special interest groups that think that Election Day is the only day to vote. They’re really trying to push that now, to stop the vote-by-mail, to stop the early voting and to only have it on Election Day.”

Some groups spurred by former President Trump’s false claims of fraud in 2020 have attacked early and mail-in voting after those ballots, which were counted days after the election in other states, erased the lead Trump held on election night.

“I don’t know how much more we can reiterate how safe elections are in Florida,” Lewis said. “[The election in] 2020 was our best year we’ve ever had in Florida. … You’ve got this handful of, I guess, the loudest mouths trying to tell people Election Day is the only thing.”

Lake County supervisor Alan Hays criticized election deniers such as Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.3 billion for alleged defamatory statements about its voting machines.

“My question is, why would you believe a pillow salesman who’s never administered one election in his life, rather than this group of professionals who know what they’re doing?” Hays asked.

Hays said misinformation “is just a long word for a lie. And I think it’s playing a significant role because the confidence of voters is being grossly undermined by these individuals and these organizations that are out there spreading all these lies. And it’s done a tremendous disservice to the voters and to our country and to the candidates as well.”

Lewis also defended voting by mail, saying the two-decade-old practice in Florida is “very convenient. There are a lot of people that can’t get out of their house, they can’t leave, they don’t have rides. They have a special need. This is their only way to vote. Why would you want to take somebody’s vote away from them?”

Lewis added there had been two incidents of people yelling at voters at elections sites.

“What are they supposed to do when they see these crowds of people that are wanting to shove this information in their face or tell them, ‘You’re the wrong kind of party, you’re a liar?’ … And I tell them the best thing they can do is try to ignore it, because it’s their right to vote, their right to be there,” Lewis said. “You just have to kind of go in like a tunnel and go straight forward.”

Anderson said similar incidents have happened in Seminole, and it’s “unacceptable.”

“We work with our law enforcement agencies to be prepared,” he said. “That’s all you need to know right now.”

Anderson said turnout in Seminole was at just 19% of voters, with just 8% voting early and the rest mail-in ballots. Other supervisors said turnout in their counties was similar.

Anderson stressed that under Florida law, unlike other states, there is no difference in when early, mail-in and Election Day votes are counted and posted.

“If there’s any idea that you should wait until Election Day because somehow it’s going to be different, it’s not,” Anderson said. “Your ballot is safe, your ballot is secure, regardless of what method you decide to use. … And then we report accurate results on Election Day.”

With just a week to go before Election Day, Orange County supervisor Bill Cowles warned thta mail-in ballots should have already been in the mail to ensure they arrive before 7 p.m. on Nov. 8. Ballots that arrive afterward won’t be counted, so Cowles suggested they be dropped off in person at either elections offices or early voting locations during voting hours.

He said more than 10,000 ballots have been dropped off in Orange County at what the state now calls secure ballot intake stations, with another 1,200 people returning them at the main elections office.

Voters can also exchange their mail ballots for an in-person ballot. Voters should visit their county’s elections website to find early voting locations and hours.

Complete election coverage can be found at OrlandoSentinel.com/election.