By Paul Waldmiller
Did you know that Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican members of the Florida Legislature are proposing changes to the voting mail-in ballot?
Specifically, Republicans are proposing various changes in the rules for requesting and returning mail ballots-including cancelling all previous requests.
At present, and under current Florida Election Laws, when a Florida resident requests a mail-in voting ballot during a presidential election year, they are also and already automatically registered as well sent a mail-in ballot for the following presidential election as well. Governor DeSantis and Florida Senator Dennis Baxley, the chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, wishes to cancel those mail-in ballot requests. Legislation being proposed by Republicans would make mail-in ballot requests valid for only one calendar year.
“Last November, Florida held the smoothest, most successful election of any state in the country. While we should celebrate this feat, we should not rest on our laurels. Today we are taking action to ensure that Florida remains a leader on key issues regarding our electoral process, such as ballot integrity” declared DeSantis during a recent press Conference in West Palm Beach.
DeSantis also stated during his recent press conference the following proposed changes and measures to ensure what he believes is needed for voter integrity,
- Address the use of ballot drop boxes.
- Address ballot harvesting so that no person may possess ballots other than their own and their immediate family.
- No mass mailing of vote-by-mail ballots—only voters who request a ballot should receive a ballot.
- Vote-by-mail requests must be made each election year.
- Vote by mail ballot signatures must match the most recent signature on file.
- Political parties and candidates cannot be shut out from observing the signature matching process.
- Supervisors of Elections must post over-vote ballots to be considered by the canvassing board on their website before the canvassing board meets.
- Prohibits counties from receiving grants from private third-party organizations for “get out the vote” initiatives.