State elections chiefs make urgent plea.
Officials demand $20.2 million in federal funds to help pay for changes ahead of primaries
Florida elections supervisors said Wednesday that Gov. Ron DeSantis needs to “act immediately” to take steps to alleviate coronavirus-caused strains on the state’s voting systems.
They want emergency changes in state rules, and they said DeSantis needs to access $20.2 million in federal money to help pay for election changes necessitated by the pandemic. While Florida waits, other states are out buying up supplies.
A letter to DeSantis indicated frustration on the part of the 67 county supervisors of elections, who sent him a detailed request for emergency changes in election rules on April 7. Five weeks later, the supervisors are still waiting.
Primaries for congressional, county and state legislative nominations and nonpartisan elections for school board and judges are on Aug. 18. But mail ballots for military and overseas voters go out July 4 and early voting in some counties starts on Aug. 3.
“Our request for executive action cannot wait any longer,” Craig Latimer, president of the Florida
Association of Supervisors of Elections, wrote in Wednesday’s follow up.
Secretary of State Laurel Lee said later she spoke with Latimer on Wednesday and her agency, which oversees elections in Florida, is “continuing our work with federal and local officials to promote accurate and fair elections for all Floridians.”
Latimer, the Hillsborough County supervisor of elections, took over Monday as president of the association. In the letter to DeSantis, he said supervisors “are confident we can overcome the challenges of the current health crisis with executive action that gives us more flexibility around in-person voting and Vote By Mail.”
Latimer said in a phone interview that “voters shouldn’t have any concern” that the elections won’t be safe and accurate. But, he added, “in-person voting’s going to look different. That’s for sure.”
At in-person voting, Latimer said, people can expect limits on the number of voters allowed inside at any one time and will probably see social-distancing markings similar to what people now see in supermarkets.
Most supervisors expect a vast increase in the number of Florida voters who choose to vote by mail. And they said changes are inevitable for in-person voting. In many cases, polling places that have been used for years aren’t welcoming the return of outsiders coming in to vote. In other cases,
the locations are too small to accommodate social distancing.
And some supervisors have said they know they won’t be able to attract the usual number of required poll workers — thousands in the case of big counties like Broward and Palm Beach — because many of them are retirees, and in an age group at great risk for serious illness from coronavirus.
One solution they want is the ability to offer early voting at more regional sites than state law currently allows. And they want to run the regional voting sites through Election Day instead of closing them down the Sunday before.
“The ability to designate additional early voting sites and use those sites through Election Day resolves a critical issue for many counties — a shortage of Election Day polling locations and poll workers,” Latimer wrote.
The things the elections supervisors want aren’t allowed by state law, which spells out detailed rules for early voting and in-person voting on election days. The governor has broad emergency powers, and officials are assessing the extent of his authority to waive election laws and impose different rules during the coronavirus emergency while evaluating the supervisors’ specific proposals.
“It is important for the Department of State that it be clear that this is a collaborative effort whereby we are working with Supervisors of Elections to ensure access to democracy and elections while also maintaining public health and safety,” Lee said in a written statement.
Latimer said he had a “positive conversation” with a DeSantis administration representative on Wednesday. Lee termed the call with Latimer “productive.”
Federal money
Latimer also wrote that he is concerned that “Florida
is lagging behind nearly every other state” in taking advantage of its share of $400 million in federal money set aside for states to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus threat for this year’s elections.
Florida’s share is $20.2 million. So far, at least 46 states have formally requested their shares of the $400 million in election preparation money allocated by the big federal coronavirus spending package passed and signed into law at the end of March.
“While we wait, the goods and services are becoming scarce,” Latimer wrote. ‘We must start ordering supplies, recruiting and training poll workers, and secure voting locations now.”
Lee said she spoke Wednesday with Commissioner Donald Palmer of the federal Election Assistance Commission, which distributes the money, regarding Florida’s plans for 2020 voting.
Before drawing down the federal money, the state needs to deal with a requirement that Florida match the federal money with $4 million from the state.
Guidelines from the federal Election Assistance Commission allow Florida to count money spent by county supervisors of elections offices for coronavirus-related needs for the March 17 presidential primary. For example, South Florida county elections offices bought hand sanitizer, gloves and antibacterial wipes for hundreds of polling places.
In many other states, legislatures have been in session and able to appropriate the necessary state share. The Florida Legislature finished its annual session in early March.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward/ Miami-Dade County Democrat who spent 12 years in the Florida Legislature before going to Congress, said Wednesday that shouldn’t be a major roadblock, She said the Legislative Budget Commission can work out a way to cover any needed state matching share when state lawmakers aren’t in session.
Last week, half the state’s congressional delegation wrote to DeSantis asking him to request the money “as soon as possible.” The letter was signed by 12 Democrats and U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.
On Tuesday, the League of Women Voters of Florida sent a similar letter to DeSantis, asking him to draw down the federal money. On Wednesday afternoon, the state Democratic Party arranged a conference call with reporters on which several elected officials made similar requests.
“Every vote matters and every vote is critically important, and we need to do everything we can to make sure people can exercise their constitutionally protected right to vote,” said state Sen. Gary Farmer, a Broward Democrat.
Wasserman Schultz said DeSantis needs to “stop dithering” on election rules changes sought by election supervisors and on the federal money. “He is stalling and waiting for his boss, Donald Trump, to give him directions.”
VoteSafe Act
Separately, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, who represents parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties, said Wednesday he’s signed on to Democratic-sponsored federal legislation to expand voting options and improve safety and accessibility of elections during the pandemic.
He said the VoteSafe Act would expand mail voting in states with more restrictive rules than Florida’s, guarantee at least 20 days of early voting, and authorize up to $5 billion to help states pay for mail balloting and early voting. Republicans in Washington have resisted such efforts, arguing that states have the main responsibility for running elections.