Dems ask feds to review DeSantis’ election proposal
Want to determine if it would hinder voting
WASHINGTON — Florida’s congressional Democrats Thursday asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch a review into whether there is a pattern of voter suppression in the state, based largely on a proposal floated by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis late last year.
The letter to Garland was led by Rep. Val Demings of Orlando, a candidate for U.S. Senate, and comes amid a broader push by President Joe Biden to pass national voting rights legislation, which has stalled in the Senate since last year.
The letter, signed by all 10 Democrats currently in office, cites DeSantis’ proposal to establish a state office to investigate election crimes and to make ballot harvesting a third-degree felony.
“Unfortunately, Florida has seen a disturbing rise in partisan efforts at voter suppression. Proposed legislation would further criminalize standard ‘get out the vote’ practices, making it a criminal act to, for example, notify a homebound voter of his or her option to request a mail-in ballot,” the letter states.
“In addition, there is a shameful attempt to reduce the number of drop boxes, particularly in certain precincts, and finally, the imposition of new deadlines on election supervisors to ‘clean voting rolls,’ an all-too-familiar strategy to purge voters of color throughout the country.”
SB 90, which Florida passed last year, made it a crime for election supervisors to send voters unsolicited mail ballots, but it did not go as far as restricting them from notifying voters.
Asked about the reference to such a policy in the letter, Demings’ office pointed to legislation in other states, including a new Texas law that restricts election officials from sending unsolicited applications for mail ballots.
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to the lawmakers’ letter.
Last year, state lawmakers made various changes to the state’s voting laws, including limiting the use of vote-bymail drop boxes to early voting hours and outlawing the possession of two or more vote-by-mail ballots, an attempt to crack down on so-called “ballot harvesting.”
Republicans and Democrats alike have relied on ballot harvesting — where candidates or volunteers go door to door collecting voters’ mail-in ballots — to turn out the vote for the past two decades. Four federal lawsuits challenging the bill are set to go to trial this month.
Although Democratic lawmakers accused Republicans of suppressing the vote, most of the changes lawmakers made were administrative, and they never adopted more extreme proposals, including banning the use of ballot drop boxes outright.
DeSantis is running for re-election this year and widely considered to be eyeing a presidential run in 2024, but he’s been facing pressure from conservatives to audit the 2020 presidential election, which he has refused to do.
This year, he wants lawmakers to pass additional legislation including creating a new elections security office with 45 investigators, and making ballot harvesting a felony. He’s also said he wants to ban the use of ballot drop boxes.
However, no legislation has been filed yet, and the state’s Senate president and House speaker did not endorse the ideas when asked about them this week. Florida’s annual 60-day legislative session began Tuesday.
A Department of Justice spokeswoman confirmed receipt of the letter, but she declined to say whether the agency planned to take up a review of Florida.