ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange County’s longtime supervisor of elections will retire at the end of January, two months before the first major election for 2024.
Bill Cowles announced Friday that he has tendered his letter of resignation and retirement to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd “with mixed emotions,” he told them. His final day will be Jan. 31, 2024.
“While I will miss the work tremendously, I am looking forward to the next adventure, having more time to spend with family, traveling, and catching up on all those experiences that took a back seat when the duties of conducting an election were priority,” Cowles wrote.
Cowles had already planned on not running for reelection next November, but the announcement that he would retire in January was a surprise, not only for the community but for the office’s election workers.
However, Cowles says that much of what he wanted to accomplish before the 2024 election has already been done, and the office is in good shape. He says he trusts the staff will be able to handle the elections without him, and it’s time for him to seek a new chapter in his life. He said he leaves an elections office that is the gold standard in Florida.
“The good news is when you look back at the staff that we have here at the elections office, they have a total of 425 years of elections, administration experience, whether it be done here or have been done at other locations, and are now part of our team,” Cowles said. “And so they are prepared. They know their job. They know what is ahead.”
Cowles first joined the elections office as chief deputy in 1989, and was first elected as county supervisor in 1996. His first major election as elections supervisor was the presidential election of 2000. His final election will be the special election in January for a Florida House district seat in east Orange County.
“And since I came as the chief deputy, there will have been 96 elections that I have ministered during my tenure as the supervisor of elections, and that includes the one that will happen on Jan. 16 for House District 35,” Cowles said.
Cowles says among his proudest achievements are the voter registration hotline created in 1999, and the Adopt-A-Precinct project, which partners with community groups to fundraise and manage election polling places.
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