ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis has named Julie Marcus to lead the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections office.

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Marcus replaces longtime supervisor Deborah Clark, who announced in February that she was stepping down at the end of March after a near 20-year run leading the office. 

Marcus has served in the Pinellas SOE’s office for the past 17 years, and has been the Chief Deputy with the agency since 2012. A registered Republican, Marcus was recommended by Clark to succeed her in the resignation letter she sent to DeSantis in February, and likely will endorse her in the upcoming election.

In an interview with Spectrum Bay News 9, Marcus says that the county – which has always had a robust vote-by-mail effort – will enhance efforts to make it easier than ever for Pinellas voters to participate in the electoral process while undergoing a pandemic.

That includes mailing out a request for a vote-by-mail ballot to all registered voters in the county who currently have not made such a request, a proposal that a few other supervisors of elections around the state have indicated that they will do.

Marcus also said that for the first time ever for Pinellas County, the supervisor of elections office will pay for returned postage for those who vote-by-mail. 

Craig Latimer, the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections and President of the Florida Supervisor of Elections, said last week that only nine counties in the state currently pay for return postage on vote-by-mail ballots, but that more than a dozen others were planning on doing so this year.

Recent lawsuits filed against the state have also called for all 67 supervisors of election around the state to pay for return postage on vote-by-mail ballots.

And Marcus announced that for vote-by-mail voters who have concerns about dropping off their ballot in the mail, her office will increase the number of drop-off locations around the county where voters can drop off those ballots. “Which would make it where every home (resident) in Pinellas County wouldn’t have to go further than three miles to get to a ballot drop-off location,” she said. 

Marcus declined to talk about any plans of running for the seat this year, though she is widely expected to officially announce her candidacy soon.