Local News
Ogg: 'Front-line' experience in elections office
Pallavi Agarwal | Highlands Today
Published: July 26, 2012
SEBRING - For the 2004 elections, Penny Ogg worked as a poll worker with the Highlands County elections office.Published: July 26, 2012
She was a novice but she wanted to know the elections process.
"I've always been interested in politics. My mom and dad had always taught us to be patriotic," said the 39-year-old, who is now the deputy supervisor of elections.
"I have a passion for the office; what it stands for," she added. "It's us; we have that voice. It's why I want to be part of the process."
From being a poll worker, Ogg was asked to train other workers. She has also been a technician for the Evid election machines at the office, became an early voting coordinator and moved up further.
She now hopes to head the department if she is elected.
"I'm energetic, efficient and passionate about this job," she said.
Ogg is running against Susie Bishop and David Flowers for the Republican primary. The winner will face Democrat Gerald "Jed" Secory in the November elections.
What sets Ogg apart from her opponents, she said, is that she is the only one who has experience working in the elections office -- from its day-to-day operations to the hectic hours before and after elections.
She has been exposed to and assisted in all facets of the election process, she said.
A supervisor of elections has to know how to execute the law, even at crunch time, she said. She has contacts with counterparts across the state and has networked with other county elections offices, she said.
"I really feel in my heart that experience is necessary in this position," she said. "They (her opponents) have never been a poll worker; they have no front-line experience."
Daughter of a pastor, Ogg graduated from high school in Michigan.
She moved to Highlands County permanently in May 1991 when she married Brad Ogg.
For a while she was the office manager of a construction company her husband owns, working with payroll, accounts receivable and payables. She even helped at a Christian day school.
The idea to run for her first political office came about when her boss, incumbent Joe Campbell, said he was going to retire.
"When Joe said he was going to retire, we started talking about it," she said, and she was the first one to file for that office.
If she was asked to do more with less, Ogg said she wouldn't pull money from an area where it would hurt voters.
"I believe my experience in the elections process is necessary as I seek to continue the legacy Mr. Campbell is building," Ogg said in a previous Highlands Today story, "a legacy of trust, nonpartisan office and elections, fairness and accuracy. His dedication to excellence in every election has produced a consistent process and accurate results each time."
pagarwal@highlandstoday.com (863) 386-5831