Election chief plans to depart
Anderson won’t seek reelection
Chris Anderson, who has served as Seminole’s supervisor of elections since 2019, announced Tuesday in a written statement that he would not seek reelection in 2024.
Anderson, a Republican, did not state why he would not pursue another term, and he did not immediately return calls for comment.
Anderson was tapped for the post by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2019 to replace Mike Ertel, who became Florida secretary of state. At the time, Anderson was working as chief of security for the Tax Collector’s Office under now-disgraced Joel Greenberg.
Anderson became the first
Black constitutional officer in Seminole’s history. And in 2020, he was elected to his current term after defeating Democrat Deborah Poulalion by garnering 54% of the votes cast.
For years, Anderson has warned county commissioners that his elections office, on East Airport Boulevard in Sanford, needs more space to meet Seminole’s population, along with an increasing number of voters using mail-in ballots.
Last May, commissioners agreed to move forward with a study that looks at the future needs of the elections office, along with the projected costs of a new and larger building at the county’s Five Points Complex. After the study is completed, the county could develop a design plan for the new building.
In March 2022, Anderson launched a new EVOLVE Partnership that calls for a special prosecutor from State Attorney Phil Archer’s office to work with the elections office to investigate voter fraud and other election crimes.
Anderson was a deputy with the Seminole County Sheriff ’s Office in 2017 when he was offered a job by the newly elected Greenberg to work in the Tax Collector’s office. Anderson and Greenberg — who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to various federal crimes — played basketball together. Greenberg, who once had aspirations of a career in law enforcement, accompanied Anderson on his shifts as a deputy, through the Sheriff ’s Office’s ride-along program.
Anderson also worked as an Apopka police officer. And from 2001 to 2004, Anderson served in Afghanistan while in the Army.
Before leaving office in January 2025, Anderson, 41, said he wants to implement a program in which the elections office pays for postage when voters return their mail-in ballots.
As of Wednesday, Seminole had 345,141 registered voters.