CHRIS ANDERSON, SEMINOLE COUNTY SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS TO NOT SEEK RE-ELECTION IN 2024
After a long career serving his country in the military, where he earned a medal as a combat veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, and in law enforcement, where he was awarded the exceptional service medal, Anderson was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis as the Supervisor of Elections for Seminole County, in January of 2019. In 2020, Anderson was elected to office as the first African American constitutional officer in the history of Seminole County. Anderson will become the first Supervisor of Elections in the history of Seminole County to graduate with his Master Florida Certification in elections administration from the nationally awarded Florida Certified Election Professionals Program (MFCEP) facilitated by Florida State University. Anderson, known for his oration speaking style, has spoken to thousands of people, sharing his inspiring story that has motivated his audience to break through barriers and find their purpose, which leads to their passion and creates progress toward achieving their personal and professional goals.
In 2020, Anderson, new to the position at the time, was faced with leading an organization through the most challenging election cycle of our time regarding the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19. Anderson quickly gained national recognition from the Wall Street Journal regarding his innovative leadership throughout the pandemic. Anderson and his office's creative work was featured in the book "Voices from the Pandemic," written by Pulitzer Prize winner Eli Saslow. The United States Election Commission recognized Anderson and his team's efforts for innovation in elections administration.
Anderson, a rising star among his colleagues, set out to improve elections administration throughout Florida and the United States of America. Anderson became a well-known, sought-after, and trusted advocate for the Florida elections administration, who twice gave expert testimony to members of the United States Congress in the aftermath of the 2020 election cycle. Anderson continued advancing by becoming the founder of the Florida Supervisor of Elections Public Relations Committee, where he currently serves as Chairman. The committee focuses on correctly educating Florida voters, building trust, and ensuring the correct information is disseminated versus mis, dis, and mal information regarding Florida election administration. Anderson also founded the EVOLVE Partnership initiative, designed to Enhance Voting Operations to Lift the Voting Experience. The EVOLVE Partnership was the first on the county level within Florida.
Very quickly, Anderson transformed the office to working to "Ensuring Your Choice Counts" by making critical advancements to the office's cybersecurity infrastructure by working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Florida National Guard cybersecurity personnel. Anderson added more early voting sites and created a more accessible website for all voters. Anderson increased the offices' efficiency by moving toward printing ballots on demand during early voting periods, reducing the collection of unused ballots. Before leaving office, Anderson plans to implement postage paid-for returned mail ballots for the 2024 election cycle. Seminole County is the only county in Central Florida that does not pay postage for returning mail ballots. Anderson moved very quickly to transform the culture of the organization's workplace environment to reverse employee retention issues. Anderson added new positions, thereby creating advancement opportunities, installed tuition reimbursement programs, made available advanced/specialized training for employees, installed a PTO buyback program for employees to use during the holidays for their families, and he went on to lift the organization's pay scale to a living wage for all employees including election workers, that hasn't been adjusted since the late 1990s to early 2000s. Anderson obtained approval from the Seminole Board of County Commission for a brand new building that is critically needed to continue serving Seminole County's growing voting population, currently 344,790 voters.
