Florida Senate passes new restrictions on voting by mail

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida senators voted mostly along party lines Monday to approve a controversial bill that would make dozens of changes to Florida’s vote-by-mail laws.

Following nearly an hour of debate that included accusations by Democrats that the measures amounted to voter suppression, the Senate voted 23-17 to send the bill to the House of Representatives, which is advancing a similar measure.

Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-ST. Petersburg, was the only senator to cross party lines to vote against the proposal.

Republican senators said the dozens of changes they’re proposing are intended to improve upon Florida’s elections, which were mostly spared the unfounded accusations of voter fraud levied by former President Donald Trump last year and were lauded by Gov. Ron Desantis.

“Our elections were flawless, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement,” Sen. Danny Burgess, R-zephyrhills, said Monday.

Senate Bill 90 would make several changes to how Floridians vote by mail, including:

Possessing or dropping off more than two vote-by-mail ballots per election cycle, except for ballots belonging to family members, would be illegal.

Requests for vote-by-mail ballots would only be requested for the next general election cycle, not the next two cycles.

Ballot drop boxes would only be used during early voting hours and would have to be monitored by an elections supervisor employee.

A variety of changes to how vote by mail ballots are counted and challenged, which elections supervisors oppose.