Florida’s Secretary of State of State is appointed to his position by the Governor. But that hasn’t always been the case. And now some lawmakers are pushing to return the state’s elections chief to an elected position.
The Florida Secretary of State oversees the state’s elections as well as business registration. And he also promotes the state’s arts, culture and history. And Sen. Aaron Bean (R-Fernandina Beach) says when voters approved a move in 2003 to make the position an appointed rather than elected one, it was a mistake.
“We all know that four is an even number, unless four is the total number of your board of directors, your committee roster or your cabinet. Four is indeed a very odd number should it be the number of your cabinet officers,” Bean says.
Currently the cabinet is made up of the Governor, The Attorney General, The Chief Financial Officer and the Agriculture Commissioner. Bean says it doesn’t make sense for a decision making body—especially the Florida cabinet—to be made up of an even number of people. He says that leads to complications when it comes to tied votes.
“The Governor has a super vote and maybe the governor should have a super vote, but I just think traditionally, I want what’s best. I want debate and I want majority to rule in those cabinet discussions,” Bean says.
Bean is pushing a bill to change the state’s constitution, making the Secretary of State an elected position and a member of the cabinet again. But some like Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-Tampa) asked whether Bean would consider getting to that odd number of cabinet members by making the Education Secretary an elected position instead.
“That person should be accountable to the people for the education policy because it is a critical function of government and I don’t want it dictated by one person who happens to be the governor. I think that person should be someone who is focused on education,” Joyner says.
But Bean says he thinks it is important for the chief elections supervisor to answer directly to the people.
“I believe strongly that we need a supervisor of elections, our chief elections supervisor officer directly accountable to the people. You know that when you’re accountable to the people your whole perspective changes. We’re going to see a Secretary of state, not that there’s anything wrong with our current Secretary of State, speak to civic clubs and travel and be out there on the trail,” Bean says.
And Sen. Darren Soto (D-Orland0) agrees.
“Over the past couple years we saw attempts at voter purges, we saw a hostility towards online registration. And I think that if it was an elected secretary of state we’d see them be more amenable to a lot of these moves that we’ve seen before that were frankly not popular and not supported by the general public,” Soto says.
Meanwhile the current secretary of State, Ken Detzner, who has been making his way through the confirmation process this year in order to keep his appointed position, has been peppered with questions about Bean’s bill. And he says he has some experience with the matter.
“As you may know I was the secretary back in 2002 and I was the first appointed secretary. So I helped transition the department between an elected office and an appointed office. And I’ll tell you , as an appointee, it really makes a difference who appoints you, what leadership they encourage from you,” Detzner says.
Detzner says he’s neutral on the issue, but does say he thinks an elected secretary of state will be subject to more political pressure than he faces as an appointed officer now.
The measure passed in the Senate Rules Committee Wednesday. Its next stop is the chamber’s floor. But the measure doesn’t appear to be moving in the House. Meanwhile another bill, sponsored by Sen. Rene Garcia (R-Hialeah) would make the Commissioner of Education an elected position. That’s bill’s next stop is the Senate Rules Committee.
