Seminole County Elections Supervisor travels to London, meets with director of the U.K. Electoral Commission

SEMINOLE COUNTY, FL – January 5, 2006: Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Michael Ertel visited with the Executive Director of the United Kingdom's Electoral Commission late last month. The meeting with Peter Wardle, which was set up by Ertel, coincided with an already-scheduled family vacation to London, so no tax dollars were spent on the international fact-finding visit.

Ertel says, "My main goal for meeting with the U.K. Electoral Commission was to learn and share best practices in election administration and voter registration. We discussed items such as election security, pollworker recruitment, public awareness, outreach to young citizens, provisional ballots and a host of other items. I think we each left with a better understanding of eachother's system of elections."

He continues, "the fact that this mission was able to take place without spending one dime of taxpayer dollars made it an even more appealing visit for me. I strongly believe that government at all levels can benefit from networking with and learning from other like organizations, but I am also a fiscal conservative, who looks for ways to get things done as inexpensively as possible. Seminole County taxpayers didn't have to pay a dime for this trip, and the information gleaned was very helpful. It's a win-win for everyone."

Earlier in 2005, Ertel took a similar trip to San Francisco, where he met with elections officials there — again at no charge to Seminole County taxpayers.

More information about the U.K. Electoral Commission, an independent body established by the U.K. Parliament, can be found at www.electoralcommission.gov.uk.


Media contact Michael Ertel, Seminole County Supervisor of Elections at 407.708.7712 or ertel@VoteSeminole.org.