Secure Democracy: Florida’s Election Bill Is A Mixed Bag For Voters

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TALLAHASSEE, Florida – In response to the Florida House’s passage of SB 7050, Secure Democracy USA Director of Advocacy Peter Skopec provided the following statement:

“Florida has long been a national model for convenient and secure voting, so it’s welcome news to see that state lawmakers largely avoided making burdensome changes to vote-by-mail, reflecting recommendations by the Secretary of State and Supervisors of Elections. However, SB 7050 is a mixed bag for voters because it also imposes new requirements and restrictions on support from voter registration organizations, which will hamper the registration process.”

Positive Provisions

• Maintains vote-by-mail largely without burdensome changes, in line with the Secretary of State’s recent report
• Creates a uniform vote-by-mail request form

Problematic Provisions

• Imposes unnecessary and overly cumbersome requirements on Supervisors of Elections for voter list maintenance and ballot canvassing
• Prohibits certain volunteers and employees from handling voter registration forms
• Further increases penalties when voter registration organizations make unintentional mistakes