Thursday night, President Donald Trump leveled bombshell allegations against a wide array of nations, groups and people he claims are conspiring to undermine the integrity of American elections.
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Many of those claims dissolved almost immediately as fact-checkers got to work. But what remained was clear: The factions doing the most to undermine federal, state and local elections are Trump himself and the hyperpartisan state leaders who rushed to redraw congressional district lines and undermine laws meant to protect the sacred principle of one person, one vote.
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Mosthttps://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/07/17/pd-editorial-trump-only-has-himself-to-blame-for-elections/ notably, a handful of states focused on redrawing congressional maps to gain partisan advantage, with GOP lawmakers scheming in Florida and Texas, and Democrats pushing through new partisan lines in California.
Democracy’s defenders
But heroes in both parties are protesting: When Trump asked Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to “find 11,780 votes” in 2020 to keep him in power, Brad Raffensperger said no. Some of Florida’s most respected Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Dan Webster (who has represnted Central Florida for decades) protested the GOP’s nakedly aggressive new lines.
The real defenders are close to home. Floridians can be proud of the way the state’s 67 county elections supervisors have locked arms in defense of elections security and voter access — a solidarity that was on splendid display last week as elections leaders from Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties roundtable hosted by the News Collaborative of Central Florida.
Four are Republicans and two are Democrats. Each has a track record of putting vote integrity above partisanship.
Floridians need that defense. Because they’ve seen too much evidence that people in power who fear the judgment of voters will do almost anything to keep them from voting. That was on full display in Trump’s Thursday night speech. The president’s gusher of disinformation and conspiracy theories is designed to create support for voter suppression measures, including passing the SAVE America Act, which could keep millions from casting ballots.
For now, voters in Florida are more likely to be tripped up by smaller hurdles. That includes driver license revisions as well as precinct and district changes stemming from congressional redistricting.
In a continuing series of editorials, the Orlando Sentinel is joining the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s editorial board to provide information on voting rights and risks, with advice on how to ensure your vote is counted.
Florida voters get it
Floridians understand the damage political gerrymandering can do. It’s why, in 2010, 63% voted to amend the state constitution, barring gerrymandering and requiring fair districts.
It’s clear that Gov. Ron DeSantis did not have fairness or the constitution in mind when he made sure Fox News, not lawmakers or voters, saw Florida’s new congressional maps first.
Florida’s four million Democrats represent 30% of state voters. But almost all the new congressional districts are heavily gerrymandered to ensure that Democrats lose as many as four seats in a state where the GOP already hold 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts. The new lines take a hatchet to common-sense representation.
Take the new Congressional District 9, which used to cover a compact area that included all of Osceola County and parts of Orange and Polk. Now it reaches from downtown Orlando all the way down to Glades County, creating a district that will be nearly impossible to represent effectively. It’s clear, however, that nobody cares: The real aim was to unseat U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a popular, moderate Democrat. The new district voted 58-41 for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and 53-46 for Trump in 2020. But the GOP almost immediately saw the unintended consequences of their decision: In this district, as well as others around the state, a multitude of Republicans are spending millions beating each other up.
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And because those Republicans will compete in winner-take-all primaries in August, gerrymandering sidelines moderate Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. In fact, it seems likely to produce candidates who play to their pary’s moxt extreme views..
But the immediate consequence of redistricting so close to the midterm elections is voter confusion.
Redistricting usually starts at the beginning of the decade, well ahead of elections. That gives local supervisors of elections time to prepare voters, and voters time to familiarize themselves with new districts and candidates.
The new Florida maps were so rushed, and make such dramatic changes, that voters may not know which congressional district they are in.
Local leadership
Orange County’s congressional map was among the most mangled in the state, and Elections Supervisor Karen Castor Dentel says her staff had to send out two rounds of updated voter ID cards, a total that topped 800,000, to let voters know which districts they were in, and where to cast their ballots. In-person voters must vote at their correct precinct, and some precinct polling places have changed. It’s been a gargantuan task, she said Saturday. “We’ve had to divert a lot of workload … people are working weekends, late nights, overtime,” she said, but she also understands that many of the people who got new cards didn’t realize information has changed.
That’s why she and other county supervisors are urging voters to take time to identify their new districts and precincts. They can do that on supervisor’s official websites or by calling local elections offices.
At the roundtable, local leaders were clear: Voting — by mail, at early voting sites and on Election Day — is safe and secure. But we agree with Seminole County Supervisor Amy Pennock, who worried that national controversy might undermine turnout in the August 24 primary and November general election. Pennock, along with Dentel, Brevard’s Tim Bobanic, Lake’s Alan Hays, Osceola’s Mary Jane Arrington and Volusia’s Lisa Lewis have all been staunch defenders of the sanctity of the vote. We hope Central Florida voters pay more attention to these local leaders, people who have proven themselves worthy of trust, than they do to the fake alarms being raised by Trump and state leaders.
Voting information
People who want to register to vote , or change their party affiliation for the August 24 primary have until Monday to make those changes.
Brevard www.votebrevard.gov 321-290-8683; 800-579-4780 or 833-803-0613 (Spanish).
Lake www.lakevotes.gov 352-343-9734
Orange www.voteorangefl.gov (new address) 407-836-2070 or 407-836-8683 for questions about voting by mail.
Osceola www.voteosceola.gov 407-742-6000
Seminole www.voteseminole.gov 407-585-8683
Volusia www.volusiaelections.gov 386-736-5930
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to [email protected].
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