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Ken Detzner
Kenneth W. Detzner (b. 1952 in Chicago, IL) was the Republican Florida Secretary of State from 2012 to 2019. He was appointed on January 18, 2012, by Governor Rick Scott (R) and confirmed by the Florida State Senate in February 2012.[1]
Detzner previously served as secretary of state temporarily under then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R) when the office was changing from an elective cabinet post to a gubernatorial appointed post. Bush named Detzner his chief of staff until appointing him to serve as interim secretary of state. After Bush won re-election in 2002, Detzner served in the role briefly before turning the office over to former Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood.[2]
Detzner worked as a governmental affairs and management consultant from 2003 to 2012. In this role, he worked on a hurricane mediation program for the Florida Department of Financial Services following the 2004-2005 storm season and advised the state's attorney general’s office on handling claims from victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[1]
Detzner was also the director of legislative and policy affairs in the office of the attorney general of Florida from 1979 to 1985. He also worked as an assistant to former state attorney general and Secretary of State James "Jim" Smith and as the executive director of the Florida Beer Wholesalers Association.[1][2]
Biography
Detzner was born in Chicago, where his father worked for the railroad. He spent portions of his summers visiting his aunt in Clearwater, Florida. He graduated with his bachelor's degree in political science from Florida State University in 1975. While in college, he worked during the summer for Congressional Quarterly.[2]
Former state attorney general and Secretary of State James "Jim" Smith hired Detzner as an executive assistant specializing in drug legislation and then as finance director for his 1986 gubernatorial campaign, in which he ran as a Democrat. This was two years after Detzner left the Democratic Party and registered as a Republican. Smith subsequently changed his party affiliation to Republican as well.[3]
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in political science, Florida State University (1975)
Political career
Secretary of State (2002, 2012-2019)
Governor Rick Scott (R) asked Detzner to replace outgoing Secretary of State Kurt Browning in 2012. Detzner accepted the offer and was appointed on January 18, 2012.[4] He made the following statements during his Senate confirmation hearing: “Number one, the agency will be run independent and fair to all parties. Number two, it will be transparent in all of the work we do. The third one is, that we run elections in Florida so that every eligible voter in Florida gets a chance to vote, and that their votes are counted.”[5]
Appointments
2012 and 2014
Detzner was appointed as Florida Secretary of State in February 2012 by Gov. Rick Scott (R), filling the vacancy left by the resignation of former officeholder Kurt Browning.[6] Detzner was reappointed as secretary of state after Scott won re-election as governor in 2014.[7]
2002
Detzner was first appointed Florida Secretary of State by Gov. Jeb Bush (R) in 2002. He served until 2003.[6]
Noteworthy events
June 2017 request for voter rolls
On June 29, 2017, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created by President Donald Trump (R) on May 11, requested information on registered voters from all 50 states dating back to 2006. The states were given until July 14 to respond. On July 6, Secretary Detzner announced that the state would provide only publicly available information to the commission.
| “ | Although most of the information you’ve requested is available to the public in Florida, we cannot fully comply with your entire request...Driver’s license information and social security numbers are not, and cannot be provided under section 97.0585. We will also not release any information that is exempt or confidential under Florida law, including certain information regarding law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors, and victims of stalking and domestic violence. Additionally, Florida’s public record voter database and does not capture information on felonies.[8] | ” |
| —Secretary Ken Detzner[9] | ||
2012 voter roll review
Detzner's successor, Kurt Browning (R), resigned in January 2012. Prior to this, he had attempted to develop a process to identify and remove ineligible voters from the state's voter rolls. Browning had pursued this goal on the urging of Gov. Rick Scott (R), according to an account Browning gave the Associated Press in May 2012. After being denied access to the Department of Homeland Security's immigration database, Browning used a database from the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The database brought up 2,700 names of potentially ineligible voters; however, Browning stated that he was not confident in the data, which later was shown to contain names of eligible voters.[10]
When Detzner took office, he continued Browning's work and forwarded the names to county election supervisors.[11] Detzner instructed the supervisors to send letters to those whose names turned up on the search, requesting they respond within 30 days with verification of their citizenship or else their names would be removed from the rolls.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida claiming that the attempt to identify and remove ineligible voters violated the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the Department of Justice’s claims on August 16, 2012.[12] View the court's opinion here.
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Ken + Detzner + Florida + Secretary"
See also
| Florida | State Executive Elections | News and Analysis |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Florida Department of State, "About the Secretary," accessed March 19, 2012
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Miami Herald, "New Florida secretary of state takes office at critical time," accessed March 16, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ The Tampa Bay Times, "Any voting issues in Florida will fall in Ken Detzner's lap," November 5, 2012
- ↑ Post on Politics, "Scott hires Ken Detzner as new secretary of state," January 18, 2012
- ↑ WFSU.com, "Detzner confirmed as Florida's new Secretary of State," February 27, 2012
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Florida Department of State, "About the Secretary," accessed August 4, 2012
- ↑ CBS Miami, "Detzner Re-Appointed As Florida’s Secretary Of State," December 17, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ CBS 12, "Florida Secretary of State responds to White House request for voter data," July 6, 2017
- ↑ Associated Press, "Rick Scott started push to non-citizens voter rolls," May 22, 2012
- ↑ The New York Times, "U.S. Justice Department asks Florida to end voter purge," June 1, 2012
- ↑ Reuters, "Florida renews voter registration purge, uses U.S. immigration database," August 17, 2012
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Kurt Browning (R) |
Florida Secretary of State 2012–2019 |
Succeeded by Michael Ertel (R) |
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