DeSantis picks Florida election crimes workplace director

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) chosen elections veteran Peter Antonacci to function the primary director of Florida's new election safety workplace.

The Workplace of Election Crimes and Safety, proposed by DeSantis and authorized by the GOP-led legislature in March, will examine allegations of election crimes and assist oversee the implementation of election safety measures, the governor's crew stated on Wednesday in asserting the appointment.

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“Peter Antonacci has devoted his profession to serving the state of Florida,” DeSantis stated in a information launch on Wednesday. “I'm assured he'll lead the Workplace of Election Crimes and Safety with integrity and be sure that Florida’s elections are essentially the most safe within the nation.”

Democrats and a few election supervisors raised questions in regards to the want for such a unit. When DeSantis signed the laws creating the workplace in April, state Rep. Yvonne Hinson (D) known as it “one other malicious try by the Republican majority to suppress Florida voters," in line with the Tallahassee Democrat.

Florida Secretary of State Wire Byrd, whose workplace oversees state elections and can home the brand new workplace, praised Antonacci as a vital participant in making certain election safety.

“In Florida, our freedoms and rights are protected by the rule of legislation and our elections aren't any completely different,” Byrd stated within the launch. “Choose Antonacci’s formidable data of Florida election legislation and his expertise as a Supervisor of Elections will be sure that our legal guidelines are enforced and that voters believe in our elections.”

Antonacci, 73, has held different roles in recent times, together with as Broward County supervisor of elections after a problematic 2018 midterm cycle in addition to director and chief choose of the Division of Administrative Hearings. He additionally served as Florida's deputy lawyer basic below former state Lawyer Basic Bob Butterworth, a Democrat.