Fla. finally joins voter protection effort
It’s time Floridians got some positive news on the elections front. It happened Wednesday when Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Florida will soon join a nationwide compact with 29 other states to exchange voter information, clean up the voter rolls and register more adults.
Good call, Governor. This took a lot longer than it should have, but that’s largely the result of foot-dragging by former Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature before DeSantis took action. What matters is that it will happen, before the next major election in 2020.
The nation’s third-largest state will become the largest member of the Electronic Registration Information Center, a non-profit, non-partisan compact that now includes 30 states and the District of Columbia. County election supervisors pushed for years for the state to join ERIC to eliminate duplicate voter registrations in multiple states and to encourage more people to vote, an overdue step that could have an impact in a state dominated by very close elections.
DeSantis said he will ask the Legislature for $1.3 million to pay for an ERICmandated statewide mailing that’s aimed at the more than 4 million eligible but unregistered adults living in Florida, with instructions on how to register. He made it clear that the postcard campaign will be conducted before the 2020 presidential election.
Finding the money shouldn’t be a problem. The Pew Charitable Trusts is offering to help states cover costs of postage and bulk mail service to contact unregistered adults.
As a mega-state with massive in- and out-migration, Florida has lots of voters who are simultaneously registered in other states. That’s not voter fraud, but voting twice is a crime. Even if one in 10 unregistered voters signs up, that’s more than 400,000 new eligible voters. The real work, obviously, is making sure they vote.
The governor and Secretary of State Laurel Lee announced the decision in Orlando where more than 20 election supervisors were meeting to build their agenda for the next legislative session that begins next January.
Joining ERIC is a logical decision by DeSantis, who has made election integrity a priority. But it’s a positive sign for another reason: It shows that DeSantis respects the supervisors’ judgment and sees the value of a partnership with the 67 counties, something that did not exist during the Scott years.
The supervisors’ frustration boiled over in May at a statewide elections conference in Daytona Beach. Several supervisors pointedly demanded explanations from state elections officials on the footdragging over ERIC. They didn’t get straight answers then, but they did Wednesday, and that’s good.
“I’m overjoyed that Florida is moving forward with this common-sense approach to our voter rolls and voter outreach,” said Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley.
“I think it’s great. It’s something we’ve needed,” said Orange County Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles in Orlando. He said it would save money over time, because cleaning up the rolls will mean fewer sample ballots will be mailed to non-existent voters.
DeSantis has directed he Department of State to review all counties’ elections security preparations for 2020 following the revelation that Russian actors attempted to penetrate two counties’ systems in 2016. The FBI and state officials emphasized there is no evidence the attempted interference had any effect on the 2016 election.