Seminole elections officials prepare for intimidation concerns at polls

Seminole County election officials are planning for a question that once sounded remote but now sits on the security checklist: what happens if armed people, police, or even federal agents show up near a polling place and voters start to feel watched.

That concern was front and center May 6, when Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock joined Orange County’s Karen Castor Dentel and Osceola County’s Mary Jane Arrington for a panel at the Orange County Supervisor of Elections office in downtown Orlando. Ricardo Negron-Almodovar of All Voting Is Local Florida moderated the discussion, which focused on protections for the 2026 primaries and midterms and on how election offices are preparing for intimidation claims, confusion, and unusual disruptions.

For Seminole County, the issue is not abstract. Pennock is listed by the Florida Division of Elections as the county’s supervisor, and the Seminole County voter guide describes her as a forensic accountant and longtime public servant with master’s degrees in business administration and forensic accounting. Her office is part of the same Central Florida network now building layers of planning around poll-worker safety, voter access, and quick response if a problem breaks out at a site in Sanford, Longwood, Lake Mary, or elsewhere in the county.

Florida law already gives supervisors and clerks broad authority to keep polling places orderly. Under Florida Statute 102.031, disruptive and unruly people can be removed by law enforcement from the polling room or from the 150-foot zone around it. State law also says law enforcement officers and emergency service personnel generally may enter a polling place only with permission from the clerk or a majority of inspectors, except when they are there to vote.

Those rules matter because the biggest fear is not only direct interference. Officials are also trying to prevent the chill that can come from the sight of someone carrying a gun near a voting site or from the presence of officials whose arrival makes voters wonder whether they are safe to stay in line. A Department of Homeland Security official told election officials in a February virtual meeting that ICE agents would not be stationed at polling places for the 2026 elections, but supervisors said they still need to be ready for questions and rumors if someone appears claiming authority.

The concern comes with a reality check. The Brennan Center has said incidents of violence or intimidation at polling places are extremely rare, even as election offices across the country have expanded security planning since 2020. In Orange County, about 60,000 vote-by-mail requests had already been made for the upcoming midterm cycle, compared with about 175,000 ballots mailed in 2024, a sign that the 2026 election is still building momentum while officials prepare for the worst and hope they never need the plan.