Jeffrey Schweers | Tallahassee Democrat

Nate Chute, USA Today Network

Thursday morning, Michael Ertel, appointed Secretary of State by Gov. Ron DeSantis weeks earlier, testified before a House committee about the several lawsuits filed over the 2018 election.

By mid-afternoon, Ertel turned in his resignation, after photos emerged of him posing as a Hurricane Katrina victim in blackface at a private Halloween party 14 years ago, two months after 1,800 people were killed by the massive storm.

The photos obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat were shown to the Governor's Office shortly after noon Thursday. About two hours later it issued a terse statement.

"The governor accepted Secretary Ertel's resignation," the Governor's Office said.

Shortly after the statement was issued, at a news conference on hurricane relief in Marianna, DeSantis addressed the resignation.

Tallahassee Democrat

"It's unfortunate. I think he's done a lot of good work," DeSantis said, adding that he accepted the resignation because "I don't want to get mired into kind of side controversies, and so I felt it was best to just accept the resignation and move on."

DeSantis also said he thinks Ertel regrets what happened 14-15 years ago, "but at the same time I want people to be able to lead and not have these things swirling around them."

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Department of State Chief of Staff Jennifer Kennedy was appointed interim Secretary of State. She was acting secretary following the resignation of Interim Secretary Dawn K. Roberts in 2011.

The photo was taken in 2005, eight months after Ertel was appointed Seminole County supervisor of elections and two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

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After the Democrat texted the photos to him last week, Ertel, 49, identified himself as the white man in blackface and red lipstick, wearing earrings and a New Orleans Saints bandanna, and falsies under a purple T-shirt that had "Katrina Victim" written on it.

Over the phone and in person, Ertel would not comment on the record about the circumstances surrounding the photo.

Special to the Democrat

"There's nothing I can say," Ertel said.

Ertel gave a presentation Thursday morning on election litigation before a House subcommittee. He submitted his resignation in an email around 2 p.m.

"I am submitting my resignation as Florida secretary of state effective immediately," he wrote. "It has been an honor to serve you and the voters of Florida."

DeSantis named Ertel on Dec. 28 to replace Ken Detzner, who served as former Gov. Rick Scott’s Secretary of State since 2012.

The Legislature is immersed in a debate about how to implement Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to some 1.4 million ex-felons. The secretary of state is Florida's chief of elections.

Desantis, who was against the amendment before the election, advised waiting to register them until the Legislature passed enacting legislation. Some counties, however, have begun the process.

Special to the Democrat

Ertel said he sent an email to county elections supervisors to accept all applications from ex-felons. The January 8 email doesn't mention Amendment 4 or ex-felons.

"I want to send a very clear message to you, and all Floridians, if you receive a voter registration application today, do as you have always done: accept it," he wrote.

The photos are the sole blemish on a seemingly spotless public career, highlighted by a record of increasing voter registration and making the elections office more accessible to the public.

Mike Ertel: A career timeline

Ertel began serving as supervisor of elections for Seminole County on Feb. 5, 2005, when Gov. Jeb Bush named him to replace Dennis Joyner, who stepped down for health reasons.

He ran against Democratic Party activist Marian Williams in 2006, beating her with 59 percent of the vote. He was subsequently re-elected without opposition. That same year he participated in monitoring the New Orleans mayoral election.

The city of Longwood gave him a Martin Luther King Jr. award for registering voters. In 2012, Ertel spoke out against Gov. Rick Scott’s purge of so-called non-citizens from the voter rolls, saying many of those who were purged were actually eligible voters.

Florida Department of State

Ertel also has won international awards for his plans to restore voter confidence and trust in the elections system.

Prior to his time in public office, Ertel was in public relations, and was the first professional public affairs spokesman for Seminole County. After the 2004 hurricanes hit Florida, Ertel provided post-disaster media relations for Visit Florida.

Before that he spent eight years in the U.S. Army, providing public relations during the 1992 L.A. riots, and in Macedonia and Bosnia.

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