Martin County Man Arrested in Election Theft, Exposing Florida's Poll Worker Vetting Gaps

Florida law sets no minimum background check requirement for poll workers, leaving every county elections office to write its own rules — a gap that came into sharp relief after a man with a decades-old theft history in Martin County was arrested in March for stealing election equipment from Palm Beach County.

John Panicci worked three Palm Beach County elections — in 2016, 2018 and 2024 — before Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link (D) said her office suspected him of stealing an encryption key reported missing during a March 24 special election training session. Surveillance footage confirmed the suspicion, and he was terminated. He now faces charges of stealing election equipment, records show.

What Sartory Link's office did not know, she said, was that Panicci had faced multiple theft charges in Martin County more than two decades ago. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement background check her office used reviews only the prior 10 years of an individual's criminal history — and Panicci's Martin County record fell outside that window. Sartory Link said her office would not have hired him had it known about his past.

The case has prompted Martin County Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis (R) to comment on the same limitation. Davis confirmed there is no state standard for vetting poll workers and said that while a more thorough background check would not be technically difficult to require, the cost is a real obstacle.

"The expense of it would increase our budget on an annual basis," Davis said, noting the office's fiscal year runs October through September and typically encompasses one or two major elections. She said any expanded vetting would require additional funding from the Martin County Board of County Commissioners — meaning the cost would ultimately fall on taxpayers.

Carl Cascio, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, said he located Panicci's prior charges in roughly five minutes using a publicly available online court search, and questioned why elections offices were not doing the same. "It's really a matter of trust," Cascio said, arguing the episode erodes public confidence in how elections are administered.

Sartory Link said last week she had no plans to change her department's vetting policy. No state legislator has publicly announced legislation to establish a uniform standard, records show.

Whether the Florida Legislature acts to set a statewide floor — or leaves each of the state's 67 counties to keep setting their own — remains an open question with the next election cycle already approaching.

This article was generated with AI assistance using publicly available information. It was reviewed and approved by a human editor before publication. TC Sentinel uses AI writing tools in accordance with FTC guidelines.