Mo Beard, Citrus County Supervisor of Elections, updated the delegation on recent work to modernize election infrastructure and outlined legislative priorities to strengthen election administration. Beard said the county replaced its voting system and launched a new website, votecitrus.gov, which went live on Oct. 23.

Beard urged turnout for an upcoming special general election scheduled for Dec. 9, calling special elections costly and typically low turnout. "Special elections are, you don't get much of a turnout on special elections, and they're extremely costly," Beard said.

The supervisor listed several legislative priorities for 2026: (1) enabling the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to share driver license numbers for voter verification and for continued mail-vote requests and initiative-petition verification; (2) expanding criminal offenses related to theft and tampering of critical infrastructure to explicitly include election equipment and ballots; (3) exempting election workers' personal information from public records to protect retirees who serve as poll workers; and (4) adding a notation on vote-by-mail certificate envelopes to act as a continuing request for vote-by-mail when a voter's identifying information is already verified.

Beard highlighted the role of federal election grants in funding security upgrades and said securing continued federal grant funding remains urgent to meet cybersecurity and emergency-preparedness needs.

Representative Groh thanked Beard for the work and said the county's election administration is a model to other jurisdictions.