Michael Ertel, a Republican who had served as Florida’s secretary of state for only two weeks and two days, confirmed to The Tallahassee Democrat, a daily newspaper in the state capital, that he was the person in the photographs of a white man in a T-shirt with “Katrina Victim” written on it.
Along with blackface makeup, Ertel is wearing red lipstick, earrings and a New Orleans Saints bandanna in the photos. They were taken two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, a city that is 60 percent black.
The newspaper said it showed the photographs to Ertel last week, and sent them Thursday to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office, which quickly said it had accepted Ertel’s resignation.
“There’s nothing I can say,” Ertel told The Democrat.
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Ertel, 49, was supervisor of elections for Seminole County from February 2005 until DeSantis appointed him secretary of state in December.
As part of his duties as secretary of state, Ertel was in charge of the state’s effort to restore voting rights to 1.4 million felons under Amendment 4, which Florida voters approved in November.
He had received many awards for his work on increasing voter registration, including a prize named for Martin Luther King Jr. given by the city of Longwood in Seminole County.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.