As another election season begins to rev up, Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley recently talked about election integrity at a North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
His talk came amidst the backdrop of persistent claims by some that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, continuing court cases involving that election and a $787 million settlement in the Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.
Despite those controversies, Corley said voters in Pasco and across Florida should have confidence in the integrity of the voting system.
“Florida leads the nation in what we do,” Corley said. “For example, paper ballots — we’ve been using them since 2008. Worst-case scenario, we could always recreate an election.
“Some states, they don’t have early voting. Some states, you have to have an affidavit for why you can’t vote by mail. Vote by Mail has become so politicized,” he said.
Under Florida’s system, the ballot is sent at the voter’s request.
“And, when you request it, you have to provide the last four of your social (Social Security) and your driver’s license, so we can match it up. That’s very, very important,” Corley said.
Also, when ballots are mailed, they cannot be forwarded.
“Every election we send out a mass mailing of those who made a request to us, and it comes back to what I refer to as the ‘Trays of sadness,’” Corley said.
The elections supervisor was talking about the mail that returns to his office with yellow stickers on them, because the ballots cannot be forwarded.
People don’t think twice about notifying their bank, their utilities and others when they move, but he added: “I can tell you what they probably didn’t do, they didn’t notify their local Elections Office.”
That can result in a voter being registered in two states, which, in and of itself, isn’t a huge problem, Corley said. But it becomes a serious issue if someone tries to vote in two states.
Corley thinks the improved convenience of voting has helped the process.
“Having early voting, having Vote by Mail is just so, so huge,” he said.
He acknowledged, though, that it has been problematic in some states.
“I knew trouble was brewing in 2020.
“In October, I was talking to my colleagues in Michigan.
“Because of the pandemic, almost half of the votes that were cast were votes by mail,” he said.
His Michigan peer told him: ‘Yea, we’re at record numbers for us, but it’s going to be a problem.’
“I said, ‘What do you mean?’
“She said, ‘By law, we can’t start counting until Election Day.’”
Being unable to begin the count until Election Day meant it would take longer to report the vote, which aroused suspicions among some voters.
Even though Florida’s results weren’t close, Corley said he encountered some of that skepticism.
“I can’t describe the awkwardness of when you have family members that want to re-litigate the election,” Corley said.
He said a relative told him: “Brian, ‘I go to bed and Trump’s winning and I wake up, and Biden’s winning.
“What, in the middle of the night did they dump these votes when no one was looking?’
“I’m like, ‘No.’
“Elections are not over on Election Night. They never have been,” Corley said.
There needs to be time to count provisional ballots and ballots cast by men and women in the military, he said.
“By law you can drop off your Vote by Mail ballot to any one of our offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day,” he said. So, if a voter drops off a ballot in Dade City and it is taken over to New Port Richey, it takes some time to get there, to be verified and counted.
There are other reasons that votes are counted past Election Night, Corley said.
“If you don’t sign your Vote by Mail ballot, or the signature doesn’t match, you’ll have until that Thursday by 5 p.m. to basically prove why it should count.
“Or, if you show up to the polls and you don’t have your ID — we never turn voters away — you get to do a provisional ballot. By law, we can’t even look at those until Thursday at 5 p.m.
“Having those safeguards in place for Vote by Mail is absolutely huge,” he said.
There are other steps that Corley’s office takes to ensure the integrity of the voter rolls.
“We do voter list maintenance every single day,” he said. “People move. People die. People commit felonies.
“After every cycle, we reach out to people we think have moved.
“If you haven’t voted in two cycles, we will get with you and say, ‘What’s the deal?”
“If you don’t vote, you’ve got to return the form to us. If you don’t, then you get a second notice. Then, if you don’t do that form, you get put on inactive,” he said.
Before elections are held, election equipment is tested.
After votes are counted, it does audits to check results.
“We randomly select a contest. It can be the president, it can be a county commission.
“Then, we select a percent of precincts. Usually about four out of our 120 precincts, and we physically hand-count the ballots.
“It has been 100% accurate since August of 2008,” Corley said. “I’m not bragging. It’s supposed to be accurate.”
Published June 14, 2023
