This would be something we’ve never seen before and it certainly isn’t legal. Several outlets are reporting that Bay County, Florida the county that includes Panama City allowed voters to email their ballots. NBC’s Kerry Sanders reports:
“In mostly Republican Bay County an untold number of survivors of Hurricane Michael emailed their ballots. Voting by internet is against state law.”
This county heavily voted for Rick Scott over Bill Nelson.
Bay County Supervisor of Elections appears to be confirming that voters were allowed to email votes there. @ScottforFlorida won Bay County 46,646 to @NelsonForSenate's 16,684. Haven't heard Nelson camp announcing a lawsuit yet. https://t.co/TYeKTPiWu5
— Dan Sweeney (@Daniel_Sweeney) November 12, 2018
It’s still early and we don’t know how or why the was apparently allowed to happen. It’s obviously not safe, or accurate.
State law doesn't allow voting by email. @FLGovScott also decided against allowing emailed voting… "Scott also decided against letting voters cast ballots electronically, either by email or fax." https://t.co/PsGKEoszSc
So if Bay allowed it, they violated the law. @marceelias https://t.co/NVBcPbnEaL
— Joshua Hicks (@joshuarhicks) November 12, 2018
Bay County Supervisor of Elections Mark Andersen says this is how 147 people cast their ballots. He was quoted as saying:
“Anyone that feels in the devastation that we experienced and the categories or the limitations that we had on our citizens of Bay County, if you want to turn around and take these votes away from voters because it’s not the normal prescribed issue, I would just say you ought to be ashamed of yourselves because what we did is take care of voters,” Andersen explained.
He (Anderson) said he had informed the Department of State about halfway through mega-voting that he intended to accept some ballots submitted by email.
A department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We did what we could. I’m sure I’m not the only county,” Andersen added, though he declined to name any others. “I know there were a lot of displaced voters.”
Carol Rudd, supervisor of elections for Republican-leaning Washington County, said her office did not receive e-mailed ballots from those displaced by the hurricane.
Even if election officials there had gotten emailed ballots from those who were not overseas, Rudd said, they would not have accepted them: ”We were going according to the order,” she said.