The Phoenix Flyer

Florida gets a new Secretary of State

By: Julie Hauserman - December 28, 2018 1:22 pm

Michael Ertel, FL Secretary of State

Gov.- elect Ron DeSantis has appointed Michael Ertel as Florida’s new Secretary of State. Ertel has been Supervisor of Elections in Central Florida’s Seminole County for 13 years.

An Army veteran and former radio host, Ertel will replace current Secretary of State Ken Detzner, who was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2012.

In its announcement, the DeSantis transition team said Ertel has won awards for his work as an Elections Supervisor:

“Ertel has twice won International Electoral Awards, in 2013 for rebuilding voter trust, and in 2017 for voter engagement. He was one of ten inaugural recipients of Campaigns and Elections’ Innovator Awards. Ertel has been featured internationally on Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the U.K. Daily Mail.”

Ertel attended the University of Maryland and is a graduate of the journalism program at the Defense Information School, according to information provided by the DeSantis transition team. Ertel completed the Crummer mini-MBA at Rollins College in 2015, the announcement said.

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Julie Hauserman

Julie Hauserman has been writing about Florida for more than 30 years. She is a former Capitol bureau reporter for the St. Petersburg (Tampa Bay) Times, and reported for The Stuart News and the Tallahassee Democrat. She was a national commentator for National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Sunday and The Splendid Table . She has won many awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is featured in several Florida anthologies, including The Wild Heart of Florida , The Book of the Everglades , and Between Two Rivers . Her new book is Drawn to The Deep, a University Press of Florida biography of Florida cave diver and National Geographic explorer Wes Skiles.