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Florida > The Florida Election Code > Registration Office, Officers, And Procedures

§ 98.035 Statewide voter registration system; implementation, operation, and maintenance.

Statute

(1) The Secretary of State, as chief election officer of the state, shall be responsible for implementing, operating, and maintaining, in a uniform and nondiscriminatory manner, a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive, computerized statewide voter registration system as required by the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The department may adopt rules to administer this section.
(2) The statewide voter registration system must contain the name and registration information of every legally registered voter in the state. All voters shall be assigned a unique identifier. The system shall be the official list of registered voters in the state and shall provide secured access by authorized voter registration officials. The system shall enable voter registration officials to provide, access, and update voter registration information.
(3) The department may not contract with any other entity for the operation of the statewide voter registration system.
(4) The implementation of the statewide voter registration system shall not prevent any supervisor of elections from acquiring, maintaining, or using any hardware or software necessary or desirable to carry out the supervisor’s responsibilities related to the use of voter registration information or the conduct of elections, provided that such hardware or software does not conflict with the operation of the statewide voter registration system.
(5) The department may adopt rules governing the access, use, and operation of the statewide voter registration system to ensure security, uniformity, and integrity of the system.

History:

s. 17, ch. 2005-278.

Annotation: January 28, 2016 6:05 pm

The Florida Central Voter File was a state generated list of legally eligible voters used by the Florida Division of Elections to monitor lists of voters in each of Florida’s 67 counties between 1998 and 2006. The list was at issue in the 2000 presidential election in Florida due to inaccuracies on the list and its inappropriate use which resulted in otherwise eligible voters being turned away from the polls.

Annotation: 1:43 pm

Having a statewide voter registration system allows poll workers to help voters who come to the wrong precincts on election day locate these voters’ correct precincts and process changes of address.

Annotation: 1:40 pm

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 was proposed and enacted in response, in part, to the events taking place on and after presidential election day in Florida in 2000.

Definition [Voter Registration Official]

Any supervisor of elections or individual authorized by the Secretary of State to accept voter registration applications and execute updates to the statewide voter registration system. Fla. Stat. § 97.021(43).

Definition [Election]

Any primary election, special primary election, special election, general election, or presidential preference primary election. Fla. Stat. § 97.021(12).

Definition [Software]

As used in the Electronic Voting Systems Act, software means the programs and routines used to employ and control the capabilities of data processing hardware, including, without limitation, operating systems, compilers, assemblers, utilities, library routines, maintenance routines, applications, and computer networking programs. Fla. Stat. § 101.5603(7).