Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a new Republican-sponsored and supported ballot law Thursday (May 6) that adds some strong restrictions to the state’s ballot box and mail-in ballots. The White House then responded.
DeSantis signed the state’s newly introduced voting law in a televised appearance earlier Thursday. The Republican governor said it will add “the strongest election integrity measures in the country” to Florida, putting the state ahead of other states in preventing election fraud.
“We’re making sure voter identification is enforced. We’re also banning ballot harvesting. We’re not going to let political manipulators go and rake in bags of ballots and throw them in a ballot box somewhere.” DeSantis told supporters in West Palm Beach.
This Florida Senate Bill 90 would also ban “mass mail-in ballots. The governor said, “We’ve had absentee voting in Florida for a long time. You request a ballot, you get it, and you mail it in. But just sending them in indiscriminately is not a recipe for success.”
DeSantis said Florida law requires real-time tracking of ballots as they come in, and the new voting letter law will strengthen that.
We want to know who’s voting and what your registration is,” he said. We track turnout so when the election is over we know how many votes have been cast, so it doesn’t allow someone to dump 100,000 votes two or three days later.”
He added that in past elections the state had 11 million votes, or 99 percent, counted by midnight and that the new law would “make it better as we go forward.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis said he “doesn’t like” the drop boxes, but the Legislature wants to keep them while tightening up how and where they are used. Under the new legislation, drop boxes must be located in a way that provides equal access to voting for all voters in the county and be subject to on-site oversight.
“Drop boxes can only be used when they are monitored and during normal voting hours.” The governor said, “You can’t leave these boxes unsupervised throughout the night.”
This new bill also prohibits the use of private funds for election-related expenses.
White House: Florida’s new voting law makes it harder for some people to vote
The White House responded on the same day that a new voting law enacted in Florida would make it harder for some people in the state to vote.
“The 2020 election is one of the most secure elections in American history. There is no legitimate reason to change the rules now to make it more difficult to vote.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“The only reason to change the rules now is because you don’t like who votes, and that should be out of compliance.” She continued, “Some states have bad laws and are trying to make them good. And then there are states that have good laws trying to make them better. That’s moving forward. Florida is moving in the wrong direction.”
Jean-Pierre reiterated the White House’s support for H.R. 1, which has passed the House. The Hill reports that the bill would expand opportunities for mail-in ballots, early voting and automatic registration, among other things. However, the bill in its current form is unlikely to pass the Senate.
DeSantis: Your vote will be conducted with integrity and transparency
Florida is the latest Republican state to implement voting reform after the 2020 presidential election. Earlier this year (2021), Georgia similarly acted on election-related issues by passing a new round of election laws.
Several Democratic-aligned groups, corporate news outlets, and even businesses have slammed the bill as unfairly restrictive, while the NAACP and Common Cause have said they will immediately file a lawsuit in court alleging that the bill disenfranchises African-Americans, Latinos, and people with disabilities.
Democratic state Rep. Michele Rayner (D) said April 28 in the state House of Representatives, “We are actively trying to suppress people’s right to vote.” He called the measure a “revival of the Jim Crow Act in this state.” But he did not go into further detail or provide evidence to back up his claim.
Democrats have opposed the ballot law signed by DeSantis and Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, as well as related bills currently being debated in Texas and Arizona.
After Kemp signed the Joe State voting bill a few weeks ago, multinational corporations such as Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola and their chief executives have echoed Democrats’ claims that the bill would disenfranchise minority voters.
Kemp and Republicans say the Democrats’ claims about the Joe State bill are misleading. In fact, with the new law, “it’s easier to vote in Joe State than it is in New York.”
“Your vote will be conducted with integrity and transparency, and it’s a great place for democracy.” DeSantis noted when he signed the bill Thursday.
Florida’s House and Senate passed the bill in late April. The bill, 90, passed the state Senate by a 23-17 vote and the House by a 77-40 vote.
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