Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that will change the way the Sunshine State conducts its elections, despite his praise for 2020.
DeSantis signed the bill, which was passed last week, on Thursday morning at a Hilton in West Palm Beach, Florida. Only Fox News was permitted inside the event.
The bill prevents state agencies from sending voting-by-mail ballots to people who didn’t request one, disallows ballot harvesting (the collection of ballots by a third party who then turns them in to election officials), and puts restrictions on the hours of operations for drop boxes. Previous versions of the bill eliminated the use of drop boxes, although it was not included in the final draft, according to NPR.
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“We think this’ll make it even better as we go forward, so we’re proud of the strides that we’ve made,” DeSantis said. “We’re not resting on our laurels, and me signing this bill says, Florida, your vote counts. Your vote is going to be cast with integrity and transparency.”
“I’m not a fan of [drop boxes] at all, to be honest with you, but the legislature wanted to keep them,” he added. “But they need to be monitored. You can’t just leave these boxes out where there’s no supervision at all hours of the night. So the drop boxes will be available only when they’re monitored and during regular voting hours.”
The bill also enforces voter ID laws, which require voters who are registering to provide either a Florida driver’s license number, an identification number for those who don’t have a license, or the last four digits of the applicant’s Social Security number. Now, voters who request an absentee ballot will have to apply annually instead of through the next two general elections, like the law previously required.
DeSantis has praised the way Florida conducted the 2020 elections, even though many states who are implementing election-altering legislation have cited difficulties from last November.
“We made sure the right people were in place. There was, we counted 11 million votes by midnight on election night. It was free, it was fair, it was transparent,” the governor said in an appearance on Fox News last Thursday, where he said he planned on signing the bill.
Shortly after DeSantis signed the bill, the League of Women Voters of Florida, Black Voters Matters Fund, and Florida Alliance for Retired Americans filed a lawsuit seeking to stop it, alleging aspects of the legislation violate the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. They are hoping to get the law thrown out for violating voter’s rights.
States across the country are implementing changes to how their residents will cast their ballots in 2022 and beyond. Republican-controlled states have promoted strengthening voter ID laws and limiting mail-in balloting as ways to increase voter confidence, though Democratic critics point out that former President Donald Trump and many in his party were the ones claiming the election was illegitimate.
Democrats, who often call for a loosening of voter ID laws and no-excuse absentee voting, have also claimed Republicans are trying to implement specific changes that will disenfranchise certain people, specifically minorities.
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The Democrats in the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1, their election integrity bill, in a party-line vote on March 3, though it is not expected to pass in the Senate unless the Democrats get rid of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes for major legislation. If the bill were to pass, however, state laws that conflict with the legislation will be voided.
