Election deniers emerge in Pinellas County Supervisor election in Florida

The allegations were outlandish, but when they appeared on the blog in 2022, Pinellas County Elections Supervisor Julie Marcus was shocked.

Clearwater resident Chris Gleason has argued that Pinellas County was the “epicenter” of mail-in voting fraud that robbed former President Donald Trump of his 2020 presidential election, despite Trump’s victory in Florida. Gleason has spread claims online and to supporters at his local political club that Marcus tried to erase votes and hide evidence, which Marcus has said are “totally false.”

Gleason, who has spent nearly two years attacking the county’s handling of ballots and voting machines, has qualified to challenge Marcus, a Republican and 22-year elections expert, in the Aug. 20 primary. Marcus is one of at least nine candidates running for control of county elections offices across Florida and has run on policies that cast doubt on the integrity of the election process.

County supervisors enforce regulations that protect elections by inspecting voting machines, auditing results, and verifying mail-in ballots. But a litany of claims of election fraud in the U.S. that began with the 2020 presidential election has led to elections for control of these bodies that count the votes.

“We all believe in this very sacred thing, which is our constitutional republic,” Marcus said of his job. “Whenever anyone sows a seed of doubt, it jeopardizes public confidence in a process that is essential to our existence.”

At a press conference announcing his candidacy last month, Gleason said he was running to support people who “believe our elections should not be rigged.”

Candidates who support false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent are running for county elections offices and being appointed to commissions that govern election administration across the country.

The trend is especially worrying in Florida because the state has been a model for professional, efficient elections over the past two decades, said David Becker, founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Florida was one of the first states to roll out paper ballots, allowing them to be audited for accuracy, and before 2021, when Republican-backed legislation required citizens to request mail-in ballots more frequently, the expansion of the practice eliminated lines on Election Day and improved voter access.

“Florida was a laughing stock in the Bush v. Gore election, but in many ways it became a role model in 2020, in large part due to the expertise of our 67 Republican and Democratic election officials across the state,” Becker said.

At a press conference at the Pinellas Watchdogs Club in Clearwater on April 24, several candidates running for elections boards across Florida raised questions about the lack of transparency, the handling of voter rolls and allegations of fraud against Republican and Democratic incumbents. Attendees held signs with messages like “One person, one vote” and “Legal votes matter.”

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“We are elected, not elected, and I hope that all of the candidates here will work together to change that,” Gleason said at the event.

County supervisors ensure the accuracy of voter records, train poll workers, process mail-in ballots, decide where to place early voting sites and handle sensitive voter data. Frivolous challenges can delay the certification of an election, as has happened in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada since 2020.

“If there are people in certain counties who truly believe these lies, it could potentially undermine the quality of election administration that has actually improved greatly in the state of Florida,” Becker said.

Fraud allegations

Gleason, 52, said he is a data analyst. Since at least late 2022, he has been making statements relating to US election fraud on a network of right-wing podcasts, websites and personal blogs.

All of Gleason’s income last year came from political activities, according to financial disclosure documents. Gleason received $41,999 from Wisconsin-based Election Watch, led by Peter Bernegger, a felon convicted of bank and mail fraud in 2009 for misleading investors in his startup company. Bernegger has filed a series of lawsuits in Wisconsin alleging election fraud and was charged with a felony in February for falsifying a subpoena in one case, court records show. Gleason also received $5,000 from a nonprofit funded by Dick Eilein, a far-right megadonor who has contributed tens of millions of dollars to election denial efforts.

Bank seizes Gleason’s Clearwater Beach home was foreclosed on in October, but he is appealing the decision, according to court records. The bank purchased the house in February, but Gleason still lists the address as his home. Records show he faced $28,596 in federal and $9,505 in state taxes over the past 10 years, which he has since paid. Gleason declined email and phone requests for comment about his finances or his work with Election Watch.

The Pinellas Board of Elections manages a budget of about $13 million and receives an annual compensation of $194,037.

One of Gleason’s central arguments is that Florida and local authorities The “treason” is part of a statewide conspiracy to disenfranchise voters. He has alleged that hundreds of thousands of ballots were deleted in Florida in 2020, but his claims are rooted in a misinterpretation of what were reported as “blank ballots.”

If a voter fails to fill in the oval on one of the sheets Ballot, page 1 The ballot will be displayed as a “blank ballot” on the counting machines, said Katina Granger, a spokeswoman for the manufacturer, Election Systems and Software.

According to Ron Turner, a former chairman of the Florida Board of Elections, counties were forced to use the incorrect term “blank ballot” when reporting the number of single ballots left blank in an election in their data reports.

Gleason explained that this meant the entire ballot was “100 percent blank,” and claims that Marcus and state officials erased the ballots and then reported that voters had left the oval blank.

“Would any sane person take time out of their busy daily lives to cast a ‘100% blank vote’?” Gleeson wrote in a June blog post.

Four county election officials interviewed by the Tampa Bay Times confirmed that these are not 100% blank ballots, but are individually blanked.

Marcus said the audit system and laws requiring ballots to be kept for two years for inspection provide concrete evidence that the election was accurate.

“I don’t just think or believe the outcome of the election, I have evidence that proves the election was conducted fairly and accurately,” Marcus said.

Last April, Gleason filed suit against Marcus and her office, alleging that she concealed election data records and “attempted to conceal evidence of numerous crimes and fraud” by charging her $10,682 to review and redact 4,571 pages before releasing them.

Marcus countered in a sworn affidavit that the data included information that must by law be reviewed to remove polling place subtotals of fewer than 30 votes that could identify individual voters. The judge found that Marcus had followed the law and dismissed the lawsuit.

Pinellas County Republican Party Chairman Adam Ross said rules state the party cannot make an endorsement in the Republican primary, even though the Aug. 20 election is open to all county voters regardless of party because no Democratic candidates meet the eligibility requirements. But he said he does not believe there is “any conspiracy of voter fraud in which Julie Marcus is involved or running.”

Marcus has received endorsements from dozens of local, state and congressional Republicans, including Rep. Gus Bilirakis, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.

She raised $139,827 through campaign accounts and political committees, according to financial records available through June 28. Gleason raised $29,089, according to the records.

“Julie Marcus has always worked diligently in her county and state to ensure that Florida has free and fair elections,” Ross said. “No matter what political party affiliation you are in Pinellas County, or in the state of Florida, I believe you can vote with complete confidence and peace of mind knowing your vote is being counted accurately.”

“Beware of this.”

Marcus, 48, joined the elections office 22 years ago, where he ran the voter outreach department. He became deputy elections commissioner and was appointed four years ago to serve out the remainder of longtime election commissioner Deborah Clark’s term. He defeated his Democratic opponent in the fall election that year.

Marcus said that during his tenure as supervisor, he expanded cybersecurity to protect critical infrastructure and oversaw the implementation of an independent electronic audit system to check the accuracy of counting machines.

Marcus said that in the past six elections, the audit system has examined 15 million ovals and has found that 0.00003% of results differed from those of the tabulators. Those cases were due to voters marking their ballots incorrectly. Since 2020, four machine recounts and three manual recounts have not changed the outcome, Marcus said..

“I’m watching this very closely,” Marcus said. “Everything about this process is about making sure that all voices are heard, that trust and confidence are fostered, and that we have a transparent process.”