CRESTVIEW — Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections Paul Lux is one of three Florida SOEs appointed to the Military and Overseas Voting Assistance Task Force by Chris H. Chambless, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections.
The other two SOEs are David Stafford of Escambia County and Craig Latimer of Hillsborough County.
Lux said, "With all five service branches represented here in Okaloosa County, the work of this task force is essential to give us the tools to provide the best service we can to the very men and women defending the sacred right to vote. I am honored to be selected to serve."
In 2008, the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections conducted independent research efforts to gather data on needs of military and overseas voters from the county, leading to the formation of Our Mission, Your Vote, a digital platform available to overseas voters registered in participating Florida counties.
Despite widespread advancement in technologies, Lux said, "We have been conducting absentee voting for our military much as we did during the Civil War. With today's technology we simply have to do a better job serving our military."
Okaloosa County currently leads a consortium of 34 Florida counties working together to provide state-of-the-art ballot access to uniformed service members, their families, and citizens living outside the United States through Our Mission, Your Vote. The challenge lies in making certain the ballots are received and counted by the close of the voting period. Lux said, "Now we have to work on how do we get their voted ballots back."
The task force will study issues involving the development and implementation of an online voting system which allows overseas uniformed services voters to electronically submit voted ballots.
Task Force members are:
●The Secretary of State or his or her designee, who serves as chair
●The Adjutant General or his or her designee
●The executive director of the Agency for State Technology or his or her designee
●One member of the Senate appointed by the President of the Senate
●One member of the House of Representatives appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives
●Three supervisors of elections appointed by the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections
●Three individuals appointed by the Secretary of State who have relevant expertise in computers, the internet, or other associated technologies.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections is on statewide voting task force