Jacksonville Supervisor of Elections Advisory Board Meeting and Election Center Tour - May 7, 2026
Jacksonville Supervisor of Elections Advisory Board Meeting and Election Center Tour - May 7, 2026
A meeting of the Duval County Supervisor of Elections Advisory Board (EAP) was held on May 7, 2026, beginning with a guided tour of the Election Center followed by a board business meeting. The tour showcased the facility's operations, including the sample precinct room, tabulation room, call center, future election museum, and vote-by-mail processing center. The business meeting covered updates on legislation, voter roll maintenance, polling place changes, early voting schedules, petition verification, board vacancies, and the countywide student voter registration drive.
Consent Calendar
- The board approved the minutes from the December 2025 meeting via motion and second, with all in favor and no opposition.
Discussion Items
- Tour Overview: Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland led the tour, highlighting the facility's transparency with glass-walled rooms, the only tied race in Duval County history (Richard Arthur vs. Rory Dunan, decided by a game of chance), and the upcoming elections museum (expected completion in June 2026). The election center has hosted visitors from approximately 80 countries.
- Election Equipment: Demonstration of the e-poll book (EVID), ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers for early voting, and the Express Vote touchscreen device. The Express Vote was used by about 82% of early voters in the 2024 presidential election; stylus pens were added to address touch sensitivity issues. The DS300 tabulator captures results in four ways (paper ballot, thumb drive, result tape, and encrypted transmission).
- Vote-by-Mail Processing: The center processes approximately 5,000–6,000 ballots per hour. Return envelopes are imaged for signature verification, which is performed manually by staff who undergo state-required signature verification training. Rejected signatures trigger a cure process and notification to the voter; suspected fraud is referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Division of Elections.
- Supervisor of Elections Update:
- Legislation: House Bill 461 (poll worker volunteering) passed unanimously and awaits the governor's signature. House Bill 991 (Florida SAFE Act) will require proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration via driver's license or ID card, effective January 2027, and will remove certain ID types (e.g., student IDs, credit cards) as acceptable forms of voter identification. The bill does not affect the 2026 primary or general election.
- Voter Roll Statistics: Since July 1, 2023, Duval County has 7,000 fewer total voters (net), with 68,000 new registrations added and 89,000 processed (including those who later moved). Removals include 61,302 moved from active to inactive, 21,322 deceased, 3,931 felons, 45,000 moved out of county, 139 non-U.S. citizens identified, and 5,227 voters who voluntarily removed themselves. Vote-by-mail requests currently total 21,354 (including 1,428 overseas and military).
- Upcoming Election Dates: The August 2026 primary will have 8 days of early voting (10 a.m.–6 p.m., Thursday, August 6 through Saturday, August 15). The last day to register is July 20. Vote-by-mail ballots will be sent July 9. The general election schedule is not yet set.
- Polling Place Changes: Eleven polling locations have declined to continue; four sites are still pending. The office is working to keep all districts within the required 10–12 precincts; only District 14 is expected to reduce by one precinct. Challenges include difficulty finding locations and the requirement for sites to become a city vendor (a cumbersome process).
- Petition Verification: The office sent verification forms to voters who signed petitions for constitutional amendments, as required by the Division of Elections. The forms are confusing and may appear threatening, but the office cannot change them. Of approximately 120,000 signatures verified in the last cycle, fewer than 100 were referred to the Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS). The cost to sponsors for verification is $4.25 per signature since March 1, 2026; candidate petition verification costs remain at $0.10.
- Safety and Security: The office is coordinating with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and will participate in a May 7, 2026 meeting at the FBI headquarters with federal and state agencies to discuss security threats. No specific threats to polling locations are currently known; law enforcement officers will not be stationed at polls unless a threat materializes.
- Advisory Board Vacancies: Several board members' terms have expired or are expiring. The board discussed the need for reappointments by the City Council and the Mayor. Donovan Bradley's term runs until 2028; Gloria Einstein and Austin Quickley's terms expired April 16, 2025; Bobby Maldonado's term has ended; and Lenel Film is filling a vacancy pending legislation. The board will follow up with the council president and the mayor's office.
- Student Voter Registration Drive: The office visited 28 schools during the annual countywide drive, collecting nearly 3,000 applications (including pre-registrations for 16- and 17-year-olds). Winners of the Freedom Award for highest percentage of registered students were announced for public and private schools, plus Edward Waters University.
Key Outcomes
- The board approved the December 2025 minutes.
- The board received updates on legislation, polling place changes, and election security preparations.
- The board discussed the need to fill four vacancies (two council-appointed, two mayor-appointed) and will pursue reappointments.
- The next EAP meeting is scheduled for June 17, 2026, back downtown.
- The meeting was adjourned after a motion and second.
Meeting Transcript
So part of the meeting today was to do a tour of our election center. But now it's only been how many tours have you done? It doesn't matter, so I might say that we're staffing. I was gonna let you give the chores available. But uh we wanted to take you through. Um we are a couple things are happening. One is we just did a renovation, a lot of the floorings, we added some other things, but part of what we were hoping to be done by this point, but it hasn't. The artwork and everything is done, the research, everything, but our elections museum for Duval County uh has not started and won't be done until probably y'all get a guess, June. In the May June. Okay. Possibly, yeah. Hopefully, in the newsletter that it was gonna be ready when we came for training. Well, that was we may have to push training off. No, but that's the goal. And uh, the education tangi, uh, Jennifer and Hallie has done a lot of work on the on the museum. I'm looking forward to it. And uh, so anyway, we won't see the museum today. You'll see where it's going. But um, but anyway, we always start our tours here uh for those, and Ed's another one. How many tours you've been on? Several. If I skip or miss anything, please y'all gladness, you know. But y'all can have a seat for a second. Um basically what we start our tours here, and we have had somewhere around 80 different countries also come and tour the election center to see how we do elections in Duval County and how uh they've toured other places in other states, how we do it differently. You know, one thing that's interesting is that states are very inconsistent when it comes to elections. Uh there is no requirement from state to state to do it any consistent way, and so uh basically that's the uh the interesting thing is we get visitors is how different it may be done here versus other states. Uh a couple things that we always point out when you come and start here, is one is our map. The map is pins of all the people who have come from different countries. So that just shows where in the world they've come from. Uh we started at the last tour of mapping the ones that were actually from the United States. It's the first ones. Yeah. So they we said, shoot, we don't have a pin in the United States, and so we let them that was touring it, uh, pin the United States. But blue is once, white is twice, and red is three times that they have come. So we're proud of uh being able to tour that. The other is the picture of this up here on the wall. That is uh Duval County's only tied race. It was in Neptune Beach. Uh, it was between Richard Arthur and Rory Dunan. Uh it came down to a tie. Uh and state law says when it is a tie in a race. Now that's after we've done a recount, you know, everything's been double checked, everything's there. It is an actual tie. The state law says you must have a game of chance in order to determine the winner. You know, so the game of chance, and those who know me, it couldn't just be real quick, because we had all the supporters and the media there for the historical tide race. So the way it started, in fact, uh Roy was coming in this morning on the radio when we were both on. Is the way we started it was uh, and the members that are up there is on the right is the Canvasine Board judge, uh County Judge. Uh the council member representing at that time was Doal Carter and myself, and that's Richard Arthur, who ended up winning. But the way we started the game of chance was the county judge uh first pulled a name out of the hat to say who starts this process. And so Rory's name was picked first.
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