Excerpt from ACLU website:
SB 90 will:
*Force voters to submit vote-by-mail requests more often than is currently required, a completely unnecessary administrative hurdle.
*Make it a crime for voters to ask a trusted friend or caregiver to pick up or drop off a vote-by-mail ballot, limiting voting access for elderly, working, and mobility-impaired Floridians who cannot retrieve or turn in their ballot themselves.
* [This was fixed before the bill passed] Retroactively cancel voters’ current vote-by-mail ballot requests, meaning a voter who submitted a request last year thinking it was valid through next year’s election will need to submit a new request.
*[This was fixed before it passed] Eliminate secure vote-by-mail drop boxes, which more than 1.5 million Floridians used during the 2020 Election to safely, conveniently, and securely return their ballot.
https://www.aclufl.org/en/legislation/sb-90-restricts-vote-mail
Earlier versions of the legislation would have banned the use of ballot drop boxes altogether, but last-minute changes allowed for their use under new limitations.
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/30/992277557/florida-legislature-approves-election-reform-bill-that-includes-restrictions
Latimer did say that proposals that would have been the most disenfranchising, such as canceling vote by mail requests that voters currently have on file, were dropped from the final version of the bill.
https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2021-05-04/florida-elections-supervisor-calls-bill-an-unnecessary-call-for-election-reform
Some parts of SB 90 are good. How would you feel if the governor could do line item vetoes like he can with the budget? If you want the governor to veto the bill, here are a few ways to let him know:
Email the Governor: GovernorRon.Desantis@eog.myflorida.com
Executive Office of Governor Ron DeSantis
400 S Monroe St
Tallahassee, FL 32399
(850) 488-7146
You can tweet him: @GovRonDeSantis
Please read the bill and the analysis for more information.
These are excerpts from the bill analysis:
* Reduces the number of elections for which one request for a vote-by-mail (VBM) ballot is
sufficient. [You must request a vote by mail ballot every even year, i.e. for each general election]
* Prohibits a governmental entity from mailing or otherwise providing a VBM ballot without a
request;
* Requiring that a voter’s signature be verified against a signature within the preceding 4 years;
if a hard copy signature is not available within that time frame, the verifier may use the most
recent hard copy signature on record;
* Limits use of drop boxes to a county’s early voting hours of operation and requires drop
boxes at all locations to be monitored in person;
* Conforms the distances for the two no-solicitation zones;
* Adds giving any item [even water] to a voter to the list of activities prohibited within the no-solicitation
zone, except that supervisors’ staff may still provide needed items to voters within the no-solicitation zone;
* Requires an additional identifier number for the elector
* Requires additional risk assessments for the online voter registration system;
I don’t see this part as good or particularly bad, it’s just something new. SB 90 created changes for organizations that register people to vote. Organizations that register people to vote can’t deliver voter registration forms for other counties to our county’s supervisor of elections office anymore. Also it requires an organization to notify each applicant that he or she may deliver his or her application in person or by mail, how to register online, and how to determine whether his or her application has been received by the supervisor of elections. It also deletes the requirement that organizations account for all state and federal registration forms. Fines remain if you collect someone’s voter registration form and don’t turn it in.
I love this part. It was a travesty that they changed it in 2019 to make people confess to having been convicted of a felony on their voter registration form. The court ruled that was unconstitutional and so this bill strikes out that awful part from 2019.
Effect of Proposed Changes: Section 1 addresses the order of the federal district court judge and conforms to the pre-2019 declaration of voting eligibility language.
Starting on line 224 of the bill: restored by including the statement “I affirm that I am not a convicted felon or, if I am, my right to vote has been restored ” and providing a box for the applicant to check to affirm the statement.
You no longer have to affirm: I have never been convicted of a felony.
The articles, that I’ve read, talk about the problems with the bill which amount to voter suppression but this part looks good to me. If anyone can find a good article about this part, please let me know and I’ll include the link on this page.
Excerpt from bill analysis:
The bill requires:
* Load testing and stress testing to ensure that the system has sufficient capacity to
accommodate foreseeable use, including during specified periods of high volume;
* Screening of computers and networks used to support the system for malware and other
vulnerabilities;
* Evaluation of database infrastructure in order to fortify defenses against cyberattacks; and
* Identification of any anticipated threats to the security and integrity of data collected,
maintained, received, or transmitted by the system.
Article about the difficulties with voting when you have a disability: https://www.propublica.org/article/hundreds-of-thousands-of-nursing-home-residents-may-not-be-able-to-vote-in-november-because-of-the-pandemic Beginning on line 1356 of SB 90:
Any person who distributes, orders, requests, collects, delivers or otherwise physically possesses more than two vote-by mail ballots per election in addition to his or her own ballot or a ballot belonging to an immediate family member, except as provided in ss. 101.6105-101.694, including supervised voting at assisted living facilities and nursing home facilities as authorized under s. 101.655, commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or, s. 775.083More excerpts from the bill analysis but these look ok to me. What do you think?
* Increases transparency by creating new requirements for real-time election data reporting,
observers of canvassing processes, duplication of VBM ballots, notice regarding canvassing
board members, and notice regarding drop box locations;
* Moves up the starting time for canvassing vote-by-mail ballots from 22 days before an
election to 35-40 days before an election;
* Subjects no-party-affiliation candidates to the same oath requirements as those for candidates
affiliated with a party;
Here’s an article about some of the problems with Jacksonville’s canvassing board:
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/nate-monroe/2020/10/29/canvassing-board-still-wrocanvassing-board-still-wrongng/6054726002/
Here are the changes in the bill that affect the canvassing boards:
During each meeting of the county 1325 canvassing board, each political party and each candidate may 1326 have one watcher able to view directly or on a display screen 1327 ballots being examined for signature matching and other 1328 processes. 1068 During the signature comparison process, the 1069 supervisor may not use any knowledge of the political 1070 affiliation of the voter whose signature is subject to 1071 verification. 835 (2) A candidate, a political party official, or a political 836 committee official, or an authorized designee thereof, shall be 837 granted reasonable access upon request to review or inspect 838 ballot materials before canvassing or tabulation, including 839 voter certificates on vote-by-mail envelopes, cure affidavits, 840 corresponding comparison signatures, duplicate ballots, and 841 corresponding originals. Before the supervisor begins comparing 842 signatures on vote-by-mail voter certificates, the supervisor 843 must publish notice of the access to be provided under this 844 section, which may be access to the documents or images thereof, 845 and the method of requesting such access. During such review, no 846 person granted access for review may make any copy of a 847 signature. 795 The observer must be allowed 796 to observe the duplication of ballots in such a way that the 797 observer is able to see the markings on each ballot and the 798 duplication taking place. 777 a true duplicate copy shall be 778 made of the damaged ballot in an open and accessible room in the 779 presence of witnesses and substituted for the damaged ballot.
