SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Before new Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock began her budget presentation to the Board of County Commissioners this month, she laid out a list of issues she said were recently discovered in an internal review.
“I walked in day one with fresh eyes,” Pennock told commissioners. “We were not in records retention compliance. We had missing or no employee HR files. We had missing contracts. We had missing emails.”
Pennock, who stepped into the role as supervisor this year, presented the Commission with the findings from the recently completed internal audit.
The previous supervisor, Chris Anderson, was backed by voters in 2020 but lost the primary in August. Pennock was elected in November and brings with her previous experience as a forensic accountant.
“Since that’s my background, coming into a new office, I wanted to make sure to kind of start the slate clean and really lay out all the issues on the table so that nothing could creep up down the road,” Pennock on Tuesday told our news team during a sit-down interview.
Pennock explained that she thought it would be beneficial not only for her office but to give commissioners a precursor into what she is now having to deal with.
“So, that they could understand some of what we’ve had to go through, some of the changes and expenses we’ve had to incur this year, and what to expect next year because some of it is going to bleed over into next year’s budget,” Pennock said.
The audit revealed 92 W-2 corrections on poll workers that were needed because of inaccurate processing, late vendor payments and numerous issues with candidate financial records — a couple which Pennock said have resulted in fines to candidates or Political Action Committees (PACs).
She also said the office cannot E-verify every poll worker that was hired during election time, which is a federal regulation for every new hire. One of the biggest surprises Pennock said was brought to light was a felon who requested an administrative hearing in August to have his voting rights restored never received a response from the elections office.
“Therefore, he didn’t get to go through the process, nor did he get the ability to partake or not to vote in the primary or the general of this past year,” Pennock told commissioners.
Pennock told our News 6 crew on Tuesday that her office worked with the state to make sure they were aware of what happened, and that they have since effectively gone through the process as required by law.
When speaking in front of the commission, Pennock said there was an “overall neglect in office administration.” She said the office has incurred over $161,000 in legal fees that did not have a budget line in the 2024/2025 year, so she anticipates a budget transfer in the near future.
News 6 also reached out to the former supervisor Chris Anderson. He provided the following statement:
“The 2024 Presidential Election cycle was conducted successfully and without major issues. I recognize that the learning curve for the Office of Supervisor of Elections is steep, and while I was made aware of concerns regarding early missteps in the current Supervisor’s tenure, I remain hopeful for her continued growth and success. Her success is ultimately Seminole County’s success. As a private citizen, I look forward to seeing her build upon the national reputation and accomplishments of the office.”
When our News 6 team asked Pennock how she believes these missteps happened, she replied, “Probably just a lack of not having run a business before, lack of understanding the importance of the ground up. When you miss file something or don’t do something, how it affects the rest of the processes in the office. And so, I think my background of having been a business owner who worked with nonprofits, forensic accounting, helps to kind of put those processes back in place and realign and make sure that we’re doing what we need to do in the office.”
Pennock also said she has taken steps to make sure every concern is addressed.
“Lots of checklists, lots of forms, lots of double checking, to make sure that we’re meeting the needs of the voters of Seminole County,” Pennock said.
She added that she hopes to move the audience into a new era “onwards and upwards.”
“I think that’s the importance of doing that audit was just to lay it all out, let the staff know that this is what we did. This is what we found. And this is not acceptable in this office,” Pennock said. “And they didn’t find it acceptable either. They didn’t want it to be a disarray.”
An additional external audit is also underway, which commissioners gave their approval for earlier this year. Pennock said the results should be available within the next month or so.