Supervisor of Elections warns of website vendor change and reimbursement delays after two special countywide contests

Supervisor of Elections Katie Leonard briefed the Flagler County commission on June 9 about her office'level budget, vendor changes and recent unbudgeted election costs. She said the office planned a primary in 2026 but had to run two countywide special elections this year and used advance months of the current budget to pay those costs while seeking state reimbursement.

Leonard said her office had planned for an 8% increase but trimmed requests after staff identified efficiencies; the final proposed budget was less than a 0.5% increase on the administrative side because elections costs decline outside presidential years. She said the big unplanned cost was a change in website vendor: the incumbent vendor told the county it will no longer host election websites, citing heightened cybersecurity burdens after federal alerts about foreign threats to election infrastructure.

Why this matters: the elections website provides voter services (registration status, vote-by-mail requests, ballot lookups) that are high-traffic and security-sensitive. Vendor change increases hosting and security costs for that infrastructure.

Key details - Vendor change and security: Leonard said her longtime website vendor opted not to continue hosting election sites because of the security burden tied to credible foreign threats identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She said the county and other Florida counties are replacing election website vendors and that counties should prefer vendor diversity for resilience. - Unbudgeted special elections and reimbursement timing: Leonard said two recent countywide special elections cost Flagler County about $329,241 in total. She asked county finance staff to advance the last two months of the current budget so her office could pay for the contests and said the state reimbursement process can be slow; she noted that another Florida county recently received reimbursement four years after holding a special election. - Cyclical nature of elections budgets: the supervisor reminded commissioners that election-year costs fluctuate with the cycle (presidential years cost more). She said administrative and postage costs were the main drivers of the current-year increase, and she had reduced some election-side line items through consolidation.

Next steps Leonard said she will continue to work with county finance staff on vendor transitions and on reimbursement filings with the state. She asked commissioners to note the reimbursement timing risk and the security-driven vendor change in the county'level budgeting process.