‘Layers of security’ protect Central Florida elections from interference, supervisors insist

Florida Statewide Primary is Aug. 18

Christie Zizo, Digital Journalist

Published: July 15, 2026 at 3:39 PMUpdated: July 15, 2026 at 4:07 PM

“This story is part of a collaborative initiative of independent local news outlets working towards a more informed and engaged Central Florida.”

ORLANDO, Fla. – With a month to go before the Florida Statewide Primaries, Central Florida’s election supervisors are promising smoothly run, secure elections once again.

“Our elections have always been secure, and we go to great lengths to make sure that they are, and not only our physical security, but, you know, the security of the ballots and transparency,” said Mary Jane Arrington, Osceola County election supervisor.

Arrington joined fellow supervisors from Brevard, Lake, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties for a roundtable with members of the News Collaborative of Central Florida Tuesday for a discussion that ranged from election security to vote-by-mail ballots to the impact of redistricting.

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The discussion took place just days before President Donald Trump’s expected primetime address Thursday. Trump has suggested he will talk about elections, including the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged against him, and concerns about voting machines being vulnerable to foreign interference.

But in Florida, at least, the supervisors say they’re prepared for any attempts to mess with elections.

“We have so many layers of security with our cyber systems,” said Orange County Elections Supervisor Karen Castor Dentel. “We have and we communicate with the Department of Homeland Security and a lot of other federal resources and agencies that help us identify any of those threats.”

“In order for a bad actor to penetrate the election system with cyber breaches, they have to get on the internet,” said Lake County Elections Supervisor Alan Hays. “Our tabulation networks are never, ever connected to the internet. So you can sleep tight at night knowing that our tabulation system is not connected to the internet at any time, from the very beginning of the formulation of that particular election, right through the audit of that election.

“It’s never connected to the internet, so people are not going to be able to get in there and, and switch votes from one candidate to another in any of the races,” Hays added.

[WATCH: Full election supervisors’ roundtable discussion]

Since the infamous errors that mired the 2000 elections, Florida has worked to streamline and secure the election process, from ballot design to cybersecurity.

Florida’s election rules already require paper ballots, photo identification, signature verification, regular voter roll maintenance, and more.

Many of these processes, aside from anything that could expose security issues, are open to the pubic, the supervisors say. So hearing high-ranking officials traffic in election misinformation is, as Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis said, “disheartening.”

“My staff almost calls me obsessive-compulsive disorder with those ballots. I worked in banking for 15 years. My mother worked there for 60 years. So these ballots and your vote is like money to me,” Lewis said. “It takes two people to go anywhere in our offices where the ballots are, where the election is being programmed, where the results are coming in at night. It’s a two-person process with a badge and their own PIN code. So we’re actually using quadruple authentication to get into any of our secure areas. No one, not one person, is ever alone with a ballot. Once we have elections on the books, as we call them.”

“They’re spewing a lot of misinformation, and I just wish they would be quiet,” Hays said. “That’s a nice way to say they should shut up.”

Brevard County’s Elections Supervisor Tim Bobanic also pointed out that the elections are audited afterward using a system called Clear Audit, which checks the voting systems for errors.

Thirty-nine county elections offices in Florida use Clear Audit, including the offices that took part in the roundtable.

“The gold standard for our election integrity is that we do 100% audit of every race, every ballot, in every precinct, in every election,” Bobanic said.

The supervisors also urge voters with concerns about election integrity to reach out to them.

“We are in the proactive confusion management business,” said Seminole County elections supervisor Amy Pennock. “We all are out there trying to give you the right information so that when you get the wrong information, you question it right away.”

Logic and Accuracy Tests

One way voters can learn about the election process is to attend the Logic and Accuracy test of election equipment, which all election supervisors hold before an election.

Here are the dates for the logic and accuracy tests in Central Florida ahead of the Florida Statewide Primary on Aug. 20.

Brevard County: