Broward's Supervisor of Elections cut the ribbon today on a new facility, just in time for election season.
The 155,000-square-foot facility has massive single pane windows and multiple elevated viewing areas. The design is part of the county鈥檚 commitment to more transparency in its election process.
鈥淵ou can see the entire process from the second the ballots come into the building until they are stored away into the ballot vault,鈥� said Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott, 鈥淭he entire process is contained within this transparency corridor with big windows.鈥�
While the facility took two years to construct, it is the culmination of a project that has been in the works for over 20 years.
The county first began exploring upgrades to the SOE鈥檚 facilities in 2003 largely due to the transparency issues this new design will solve. Since then, the county looked at three different sites before landing at the new building at 4560 NW 21st Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, just south of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
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The building is hardened to withstand a Category 5 hurricane and can operate for seven days without power if need be.
Scott was beaming at the updated space his staff received.
鈥淪ome of these folks have spent the better part of two decades in a windowless cubicle office in the Lauderhill Mall,鈥� said Scott. 鈥淎nd now we have seating with natural light for almost everybody here.鈥�
Nationwide, there has been increased scrutiny on elections since 2020, but in Broward those problems go back much further.
Scott鈥檚 predecessor Brenda Snipes was removed from her elected position in 2018 by then Governor Rick Scott after a scandal-ridden reign that included elections where ballots were either uncounted or destroyed illegally.
The first election for the new building will be Aug. 20, the upcoming primary.
