EDITORIAL: DeSantis should treasure integrity when naming new Orange elections chief

“Batten down the hatches, there be squalls ahead!” ― Talking Skull, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Two weeks after Bill Cowles’ bombshell announcement that this month’s special election in House District 35 will be his last as Orange County’s elections supervisor, people are still talking about what that might mean as Florida embarks on a dramatic presidential primary followed by a 2024 electoral season that is guaranteed to be tempestuous.

What is needed — what will be critical in the coming months — is an elections leader whose integrity cannot be questioned. There’s good reason to fear that the governor will instead seek to hoist the Jolly Roger over one of Florida’s bluest elections seas.

That would be a disaster, for Orange County’s 800,000 registered voters and for DeSantis’ personal political narrative. His 2024 presidential campaign has one foot on the plank. And the governor is smart enough to see that any future ambitions depend heavily on repairing his piratical reputation over the two years left in his term.

Cowles is not the only veteran elections supervisor stepping down. Escambia County’s David Stafford has already announced he’s moving on after nearly 20 years, and other resignations are rumored. But DeSantis’ pick in Orange County is likely to be the one Floridians will be watching.

Plenty to plunder

For Orange County, the implications are undeniably nerve-wracking. This area could be critical in decisions that play out on national, state and local levels. The future balance in Congress may well be decided in Florida’s I-4 corridor. Barring additional bombshells, Florida has no statewide offices up for election and it seems likely that the Florida Legislature will remain firmly in GOP hands, but choosing effective lawmakers will be critical as Orange County fights for a fair share of state funding. Finally, there will be several high-profile local races on the ballot, including races for school board where DeSantis has already been caught meddling.

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There are further complications. Cowles has no clear second-in-command, though there are several senior leaders in the Orange County office who could step into the captain’s quarters with ease. The veteran supervisor — with more than three decades of elections experience — long ago broadcast his intentions to step down sometime in 2024, so the jostling for this fall’s elections is already well underway. Appointing one of the already-announced hopefuls would be tantamount to a gubernatorial endorsement, which could well affect the election’s outcome.

But Cowles’ operation is a well-oiled machine. While promoting one of several long-term employees of the elections office might be the smartest move, specific expertise in running elections is not necessarily needed.

Integrity is.

DeSantis may be tempted to turn this Democratic bastion, known for well-run, low-drama elections administration, into a scene of merry privateers partying against a backdrop of flames. That would transform Orange County into “evidence” that the nation’s elections are somehow untrustworthy — a pretext to disadvantage poor, elderly and non-white voters. DeSantis has done more than most governors to further that false narrative, with his specially appointed band of “elections police” that produced only a pitiful string of often mistaken voters while steadfastly overlooking intentional violations perpetrated in more conservative counties.

Post-2024, DeSantis must re-write his legacy if he has any hope of a future political career. He should remember: Dead men tell no tales.

A strong defense

The reality is that Florida’s elections —- and modern elections across the nation — are run by strict rules and layers of oversight that make them more accurate and transparent than they’ve ever been. Don’t take our word for it: Read up on elections security procedures in every single one of Florida’s 67 counties, which include open-to-the-public tests of vote-tallying technology and strict standards for preparation and administration of elections. Cowles helped set the tone for that over his 30 years of service. His successor could erase that over the course of months.

DeSantis has turned a blind eye as Florida campaigns produced prolific numbers of dirty tricks and dirty money and supported attempts to undermine voters’ convenient access to options like voting by mail. Yet local elections administration — maintaining voter rolls, keeping the public informed and accurately counting ballots — hasn’t faced valid challenges.

After 2020, DeSantis bragged about the integrity of Florida’s elections. He was right to do so. And this is his chance to prove that he values that — by putting his personal ambitions and animus aside, and choosing someone who can be trusted by voters of any, or no, party affiliation.

Orange County needs a leader who will protect the treasure Bill Cowles will leave behind him. Someone who is widely considered to be incorruptible. We ask the governor to respect that as he names a caretaker for this critical position, and find someone who can navigate stormy seas and steer the 2024 elections safely into harbor.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com