Safe Use Framework

Ask these four questions, in order, every time: before you put a file in a project folder, before you attach it to a chat, and before you type or say it.

1. 1

   Is it on the red list below?

   Stop. It doesn’t go into any public AI tool: not in a project folder, not attached, not typed in. No exceptions without legal approval.

2. 2

   Could it contain personal information you haven’t checked?

   Yellow. Remove it first (see clean the file first), or use only your office’s approved business-tier tool.

3. 3

   Is it already published, or would you hand it to anyone who asked?

   Green. Go ahead.

4. 4

   Will someone who knows this work read every page before it’s used?

   Always yes. You’re the expert, so you’re the check. Outside your expertise? Hand it to someone who knows.

Green data classification· Public dataPublic information. Fine to use with AI tools.

Green information is already public, or is information you would give to anyone who asked for it. Using it with an AI tool doesn’t expose anything new.

• Published guides and handbooks (the Polling Place Procedures Manual (PDF), candidate handbooks, your own voter guides)
• Florida Statutes, Florida Administrative Code rules, and Division of Elections advisories
• Canvassing board notices, public meeting agendas, and approved minutes
• Press releases and anything already on your website or social media
• Published statistics: registration counts by party, turnout, election results
• Public voter record fields that Florida law treats as public record, in aggregate (counts, totals, trends)

Yellow data classification· Think firstInternal or unchecked information. Use approved business-tier tools only, and check for personal info first.

Yellow information is internal, unfinished, or not yet checked. Much of it is a public record once it’s created, but it may contain details that are exempt, or it’s simply not ready for outside eyes. Use yellow information only with a tool your office has approved, on a business or enterprise plan where your data isn’t used to train models, the trained programs behind the chat (see Will They Train on Our Data?).

• Internal procedures and desk manuals
• Draft policies and draft budgets
• Vendor contracts, quotes, and statements of work
• Staff emails and meeting notes
• Anything that might contain a name, address, phone number, or email you haven’t checked

Before you put yellow information in a folder or a chat:

1. Remove personal information: addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, emails, ID numbers, and any name the job doesn’t need. Or replace them with fake ones (“Jane Sample, 123 Example St”). If it is a file from a system, clean the file first (see the box below).
2. Use your office’s approved business-tier account, not a personal or free account.
3. Ask yourself: would I be comfortable if this chat were requested as a public record? (It might be. See below.)

Red data classification· Never pasteConfidential or exempt information. Never paste into a public AI tool.

Red information is confidential or exempt under Florida law, or would put people or systems at risk if it got out. Don’t put it into a public AI tool in any way (in a project folder, as an attachment, or typed into a chat), including paid consumer plans. The only exceptions are ones your office’s attorney and IT have specifically approved in writing, in a tool built for that purpose.

The links in the table open the whole section of the statute, which can be very long. Use Ctrl+F (Find) and type the subsection, for example (4)(d), to jump to it.

The colors are about what goes in. The other half of safe use is what comes out.

AI can build a whole folder of files in minutes, and it can be wrong while sounding completely sure. A longer prompt won’t catch that, and asking the AI to check its own work won’t either. The person who catches it is the one who could have done the job by hand. You know when early voting starts, who can serve as a poll worker, and what a candidate has to file. When you read what the AI made, the mistakes stand out.

• Read every page it made, the way you’d read a new coworker’s first draft. Twenty slides means twenty slides.
• If it’s outside what you know, hand it to someone who knows. The qualifying officer, your attorney for anything legal, whoever runs the voter system for anything about it.
• Nothing goes to the public without a second person reading it.
• AI never gives the final answer on an individual voter’s eligibility, and never changes statutory ballot language.

This is also why the best first projects are ones you already know how to do. Getting Started explains it with a real example.

Florida’s public records law is Ch. 119, F.S. A public record is any document, paper, recording, data, or other material made or received in connection with official business, “regardless of the physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission” (s. 119.011, F.S.). Anyone can ask to see public records unless a specific law makes them exempt or confidential.

Exempt vs. confidential. “Exempt” means you don’t have to release it. “Confidential and exempt” means you may not release it except as the law allows. For AI purposes, treat both as red.

Where the exemptions live. The general list is in s. 119.071, F.S. and cybersecurity information is in s. 119.0725, F.S. Elections-specific exemptions are in s. 97.0585, F.S. and s. 101.62, F.S., and address protection for victims is in Ch. 741, F.S. Your attorney keeps track of the ones that matter to your office.

A company acting on your behalf can be covered. The public records law can reach a company that acts on your office’s behalf (s. 119.011, F.S.), and contracts for services must include public records clauses (s. 119.0701, F.S.). Whether an AI subscription counts is a question for your office’s attorney. Business plans come with real contracts your attorney can read, which is one more reason they are the right home for yellow work.

No AI-specific law for your office that we found. On October 2, 2026, we checked the 2026 Florida Statutes on Online Sunshine and the list of 2026 Laws of Florida at laws.flrules.org/2026. We found no Florida law that sets rules for how government offices use AI. The one AI statute aimed at elections that we found, s. 106.145, F.S., requires a disclaimer on certain AI-made political ads that show a real person doing something they didn’t do, when made to hurt a candidate or mislead about a ballot issue. On its face the law is about political advertising. If you are not sure whether it applies to something specific, ask your office’s attorney. (s. 282.802, F.S. creates an advisory council on government technology and AI. It doesn’t set rules for your office.) Laws change every session, so this was true on the day we checked.

This surprises people, so it’s worth saying plainly: if you use an AI tool for office business, your prompts and the AI’s answers may be public records. They’re made in connection with official business, the same as an email or a draft memo.

What that means in practice:

• Use work accounts for work. If you do office business in a personal AI account, you’ve created public records in a place your office can’t easily search, retain, or produce.

• Retention depends on content, not format. A retention schedule says how long each kind of record must be kept. Florida’s General Records Schedules say electronic messages are kept by what they are. GS1-SL covers state and local agencies, and GS3 covers election records (both June 2023 editions). The state adopts both in Rule 1B-24.003, F.A.C. Neither schedule mentions AI yet, so your office has to decide how chats fit. Some likely matches:

  • A session that only reworded a sentence: probably Transitory Messages (GS1-SL item 146), kept until it’s no longer useful.
  • A session that produced a draft: Drafts and Working Papers (item 242).
  • A session that became part of administrative correspondence or policy work: Correspondence and Memoranda (item 17, 3 fiscal years; item 338, 5 fiscal years).

  Ask your records management liaison officer (RMLO) how your office classifies them. The Division of Library and Information Services started a rule review in March 2026 that may revise these schedules, so check for new editions.

• Save what matters. When a chat produces something you’ll use, save the final output (and, if your RMLO says so, export the chat) into your normal filing system.

• Assume it can be requested. Write prompts as if a reporter might read them someday. That’s good practice anyway.

• Litigation holds apply. If your office is under a hold, AI chats on that subject are covered too.

AI companies sell two kinds of plans, and the data rules are different.

• Consumer plans (the free and individual paid plans) are designed for personal use. Depending on the vendor and your settings, your chats may be used to train future models, and you manage the settings yourself.
• Business and enterprise plans are designed for organizations. They generally don’t use your data for training by default, and they add admin controls, data retention settings, and contract terms your office can review.

A paid consumer plan is not automatically a “no training” plan. Chats can be used to train models if the setting is on. Check yours and turn it off. The Will They Train on Our Data? page walks through each major tool, with links to the vendors’ own policies and the date we last checked them.

What this means for your office:

• Green work is fine on any plan, including free ones.
• Yellow work belongs on an approved business-tier plan with training turned off, or in a tool that already runs inside your county’s Microsoft 365 account, called a tenant (see Microsoft 365 Copilot).
• Red information doesn’t go into public AI tools on any plan.

The one-page AI Safe Use Checklist fits on a single printed page. Hand it out at your next staff meeting.