WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — There is no background check requirement for Florida poll workers, according to Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis (R).
The lack of a requirement has led to each elections office in the state setting their own policy for vetting people working in the state’s election.
The Palm Beach County Republican Party is now asking for more in-depth and complete background checks in Palm Beach County, after WPTV found out a background check missed previous theft charges filed against a man who is now charged with stealing election equipment from a training session.
John Panicci, arrested in March for stealing election equipment, faced multiple theft charges in Martin County more than two decades ago. Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link (D) said they would have not hired Panicci if they knew about his criminal past, but a background check conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) didn’t notify them about his past because it only reviews an individual’s criminal history from the past 10 years.
Panicci worked three elections (2016, 2018 and 2024) over an eight-year period. Sartory Link said he was invited back to work a special election held March 24 but was terminated after they suspected he stole an encryption key that was reported missing, and reviewed surveillance cameras.
GOP LEADER CALLS FOR CHANGE
Carl Cascio, chairman for the Palm Beach County Republican Party, said he was shocked to learn the office for the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections didn’t know about Panicci’s past, especially because he found the charges in about five minutes from an online court search.
Beyond the theft charge, he said Panicci should have never been allowed to work in any election because of the amount of court cases involving financial problems, driving infractions and social media posts.
Palm Beach County
Why did elections office wait more than a week to report poll worker theft?
“You are who you are after you grow up,” Cascio said. “I mean, your character usually doesn't change much after you grow up. And if you have a history or a past where you run into financial problems and you have lawsuits against you for collections of debts, that's forgivable. That's not moral turpitude. But, when you start having a pattern over 20 years and it and it resurfaces periodically, that's character flaw and you can pick that up. That's not something that's like rocket science. It's really kind of basic."
He also said Panicci wouldn’t have passed a background check to join his organization’s executive committee because of his “severe” character flaws. Cascio said the issue creates distrust among people about the election’s integrity.
"It's really a matter of trust and a matter of how is the rest of the office being run and and whether or not they're catching other things as far as, are there illegals that are voting,” he said.
Casio also said he doesn’t understand the rationale to look at the past 10 years for potential employees, calling it an arbitrary number.
STANDARDS FOR OTHER PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
In comparison, Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis said there is no state standard for vetting campaign workers. But a more in-depth background check would put added costs onto election offices.
“It wouldn’t be a problem, but the first issue that I see with it is the cost,” Davis said. “The expense of it would increase our budget on an annual basis because our budgets run from October 1 through September 31, so we always have one or two major elections within those budget years.”
WATCH: Poll worker background checks limited to 10 years
Davis said a more in-depth background check would be a “substantial amount of money” that it would have to ask the Martin County Board of Commissioners to fund from taxpayers or another revenue source.
A Palm Beach County official said it does a full history criminal background check for their county employees. Records we obtained from the West Palm Beach Police Department show they also conduct a full background check, even stretching to when an individual was a juvenile.
Sartory Link said last week she had no plans to change her department’s policy. Her office didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
