Guest Author
This week, more than 11 million Floridians exercised their right to vote and made their voices heard in a 2020 “Sunshine State” election that will long be remembered for its fairness, accuracy and timely reporting of results.
We are proud that two years of hard work helped prepare our state for a successfully administered General Election.
We were able to deliver secure, reliable, and accurate results on Election Night, while other states are still counting votes. We have come a long way since the 2000 election, when the whole nation waited for weeks to learn of Florida’s final outcome in the country’s presidential race.
Our success in this most important election is the result of planning, preparation and professionalism.
First, we salute the Florida Legislature for developing a comprehensive election code that set out clear timelines, provided standards for recounts, and built the foundation for fair and consistent procedures across our state. The Legislature provided Floridians multiple options for voting, while also ensuring important safeguards on the integrity of our voting process.
In this time of a pandemic, their thoughtful inclusion of multiple secure voting options provided us with vital flexibility for Florida’s voters.
Florida’s 67 county-based Supervisors of Elections, directly responsible and accountable for their local elections, have worked tirelessly to modernize voting equipment, streamline processes and to be prepared for any logistical challenges that might arise. The Department of State effectively and efficiently partnered with them to ensure that our statewide elections and cybersecurity infrastructure is strong, and able to withstand attacks.
Across our state, Florida’s Supervisors of Elections, their staff, and our poll workers were models of organization, preparation and determination to face the challenges they have encountered throughout this past year.
Gov. Ron DeSantis made it a priority for Florida to conduct free and fair elections and he made significant investments aimed at modernizing and strengthening our elections infrastructure. He also ensured that Supervisors of Election had extra time to canvass vote by mail ballots and had access to any supplies or equipment needed to keep voting safe and secure. The orderly and secure voting process we experienced this year is a credit to his leadership.
Our federal, state and local law enforcement partners worked seamlessly with us, providing accurate intelligence information to actively help us protect against both cyber and physical threats to our democratic process. They answered the call to protect our elections as vital partners. Despite threats and efforts to interfere with our election, we were stronger than ever with this collaboration and cooperation.
Finally, we owe a salute to Florida’s citizens of every demographic group — from our big metropolitan areas to our rural towns. Floridians statewide treated each other with respect and courtesy at the polls. You have shown that Florida’s diversity is a core strength, with our people deeply committed to participating in the electoral process at a historic level.
In this most important way, we showed each other and the entire country that we are united in purpose in doing our individual and collective part to make decisions about who will lead our nation, state and communities.
Elections are partisan, but elections administration is not — and the respect Floridians showed for our democratic process runs deeper than what divides us.
Success takes time, hard work, cooperation, investment and occasionally, setbacks. But for election 2020 in Florida, a positive new milestone has been reached.
Congratulations, Florida!
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Laurel M. Lee serves as Florida Secretary of State.
