The Broward County Supervisor of Elections held a conference call Thursday to talk about the voter registration list maintenance process. The process takes place every two years and is designed to protect the integrity of elections. It began in March and will continue through the year.
The process comes on the heels of multiple issues with ballot counting in the county during the November 2018 elections. Then Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes was accused by former Gov. Rick Scott of fraud and incompetence.
The voter registration list maintenance process is as follows:
First, the National Change of Address (NCOA), a dataset of permanent change-of-address records from the Postal Service, will notify the Broward elections office of any address changes. The Broward elections office can then update their database.
Then, all voters with inactivity on their record will receive an address confirmation request. This must be filled out within 30 days.
Peter Antonacci, the Broward Supervisor of Elections, is doing something new this time. The elections office will send a final postcard to all voters whose status has become inactive. The postcard will include steps to become an active voter again.
The final step is a final confirmation notice, mailed in August.
Mary Hall is the Chief Deputy Supervisor of Elections. She said this process aims to reduce confusion among voters.
"It will make sure that the rolls are clean. That every voter knows where to go and vote on the election date, or early voting, or schedule a vote by mail to be mailed out to them,” Hall said.
Antonacci said these steps are valuable in increasing communication between the office and the people. He also says this process will decrease lines on the day of the elections.
Antonacci said Broward was not one of the Florida counties hacked by Russia during the 2016 election.
The special counsel report, released in April, confirmed at least one Florida county had its election system compromised during the 2016 election.
Antonacci said he didn't know which county or counties were breached.
