Florida’s proposed voting laws would only make it harder for people to vote
Despite a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, 77% of eligible Florida voters turned out to vote statewide in 2020 – the highest turnout in 65 years. Hard-working election officials throughout this state could only meet that demand because of meaningful and robust voting options, including accessible voting by mail and drop boxes that have been widely available and uncontroversial for many years.
And yet, some lawmakers in Tallahassee are vigorously working to make it harder for all of us to vote in future elections.
Florida has long been a state with significant mail-in voting. This past election cycle, mail-in voting skyrocketed with nearly 5 million people voting by mail, including 1.5 million Republicans, 2.2 million Democrats, and 1.1 million unaffiliated/independent voters.
However, following Georgia’s example, some Florida senators have proposed a slew of measures to severely restrict voting by mail – and make it a crime to distribute water and food to voters waiting in line.
Let’s be clear: State officials, courts and even former Attorney General William Barr have all confirmed that the 2020 election was secure. Gov. Ron DeSantis himself proclaimed in February that Florida had “the most transparent and efficient election anywhere in the country.” And last month, former President Donald Trump requested a mail-in ballot in Florida for the next election.
In a whiplash-inducing about-face, DeSantis now says that Florida needs to “stay ahead of the curve.”
Apparently, staying “ahead of the curve” means ushering in Jim Crow 2.0. It’s a pattern.
In 2019, legislators in Tallahassee imposed a modern-day poll tax on formerly incarcerated people after Amendment 4, the largest act of enfranchisement in the United States since 1971, passed overwhelmingly in 2018. This year, legislators are discussing the imposition of new restrictions on voting that will hurt everyone but will disproportionately affect voters of color, new citizens, voters with disabilities and low-income voters after these same groups turned out in record numbers.
Two pieces of legislation — SB 90 and HB 7041 — would make it much harder to see the high turnout we saw last year via vote-by-mail ever again. For one, the bills would restrict or outright eliminate drop boxes for ballots. That’s absurd. Drop boxes are incredibly convenient for voters and enable people to dodge the uncertainties of post-office delivery. They are vital for voters of color, low-income communities and people with disabilities, who generally face obstacles to in-person voting.
Not one Florida supervisor of election supports SB 90 or HB 7041 as currently written.
Not one.
Unsurprisingly, a whopping 70% of Florida voters support the use of drop boxes, according to a 2020 poll from the State Innovation Exchange. And 1.4 million voters used drop boxes last year.
These bills would severely restrict or stop anyone other than immediate family members from picking up ballots to submit them, which is a 180-degree turnaround from current law. This change would significantly hurt Floridians who don’t live near family. Alan Hays, the Lake County supervisor of elections and a former Republican state representative and state senator, recently laid out his concerns about SB 90, asking, “Do you have any idea how many people like my dear mother don’t have family members living nearby?”
Indeed, it seems many Florida lawmakers don’t have any idea. Or worse, they just don’t care.
Carrie Boyd is policy counsel for the SPLC Action Fund.
Photo by Thomas Cordy via Imagn Content Services, LLC
