ORLANDO, Fla. – As Floridians finalized preparations to ride out Hurricane Milton Tuesday, elections officials across Central Florida finalized preparations to keep ballots and ballot equipment safe during the storm.
“We are prepared to ensure that the Orange County community’s vote is safe and secure,” Orange County Elections Supervisor Glen Gilzean told News 6 Tuesday.
Workers at the county supervisor of elections office wrapped machines in plastic and tarps, secured equipment to shelves, and even loaded the most essential equipment into trucks, which are now parked inside the Orange County Convention Center.
Ballots and other records were also secure.
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Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays said his office also covered all the equipment with tarps in his Tavares office, and Marion County Elections Supervisor Wesley Wilcox said all tabulators are under special covers at his office.
Seminole County Elections Supervisor Chris Anderson said in addition to covering and securing the computers and equipment, his office also put down sandbags at doors to protect against flooding.
“We have also collected backups of all election administration Information technology needed to conduct elections as this is critical to our emergency operations planning,” Anderson said.
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Elections offices throughout Florida have been busy mailing out vote-by-mail ballots and getting ready for early voting, which starts Oct. 21.
Once the storm passes they will have the huge task of quickly checking all the polling precinct sites to make sure they are safe.
“Immediately after the storm passes we will start doing site surveys, not only at our main location but across all of our 22 early voting sites, and then also, with the help of our county partners and law enforcement partners, with the remaining 215 locations as well,” Gilzean said.
Gilzean reminded voters that in addition to voting early and voting on Nov. 5, voters can also vote by mail, and he urged them to consider it.
The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is Oct. 24.
Depending on how bad the damage is from Milton, Gov. DeSantis may suspend some rules to allow for supervisors in the affected counties more discretion in relocating and consolidating polling places, accepting vote-by-mail ballots and requests, and more. He did that for several counties affected by Hurricane Helene.
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