New Florida vote-by-mail bill could place steep limit on who qualifies

A new Florida bill could make it harder to vote by mail by imposing new eligibility requirements.

Florida Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, filed SB 1752 on Jan. 5 intending to prohibit the Department of State from approving certain voting systems, requiring the department to make information available to the public on its website within a specific time frame, requiring the county canvassing board to conduct a manual count in certain precincts before certification of certain elections and limiting voters’ eligibility for requesting a vote-by-mail ballot.

Under SB 1752, Florida voters would only be eligible to request a vote-bymail ballot if they are absent from the county of their address, unable to appear personally at the early voting site because of illness, physical disability or duties related to the primary care of someone who is ill or physically disabled, a resident or patient of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical facility or if the resident is confined in jail but still qualified to vote.

The bill is the latest push by Republicans to make vote-by-mail more difficult for Florida voters, which was popular during the 2020 general election, with 44% or 4.6 million Floridians casting their vote by mail. During the 2022 election, more than 1.1 million voters sent in mail-in ballots.

And while Florida received praise from all corners for its nearly flawless performance on election night, which included getting mail-in ballots counted before nearly any other state, lawmakers are looking to make it harder to get a mail ballot and harder to get those ballots submitted.

In 2021, Republicans passed SB 90, which limited the use of drop boxes other than at a supervisor’s office to early voting hours along with requiring inperson monitoring of all drop boxes while accessible; requires a driver’s license, state I.D. or Social Security number to register to vote by mail; increased the scrutiny on voter signatures on the request form and return envelope for the ballot; and made physically possessing more than two vote-by-mail ballots per election in addition to your own ballot or one belonging to an immediate family member a first-degree misdemeanor.

Here’s a look at how SB 1752 would affect early voting and more.

SB 1752 would bar Florida from approving certain voting systems

One of the first subsections that would be added to Florida Statutes would restrict the types of voting systems the state could use during elections. SB 1752 would bar Florida from using any system that:

Incorporates hardware or software designed, produced, owned or licensed by an entity that is owned, operated or majority-controlled by a company outside of the U.S. This would also extend to a domestic company registered in another country, including a domesticated foreign corporation or by someone who is not a U.S. citizen.

Is produced, in whole or in part, including software, hardware, tabulating equipment, printers and any other accessories, in a foreign country.

hhUses software that is not opensource and not available for inspection by the public.

Open-source software is software with source code that anyone can view, use and modify.

hSB 1752 would trigger automatic manual counts in randomly selected precincts

Another big chunk of BS 1752 is outlined in Section 3 of Section 101.592 in Florida Statutes. This section enforces a manual count of votes in two precincts per county. These precincts will be randomly selected by the Secretary of State, who will inform the county canvassing board at least 15 days before the election, but will not be publicly announced until after polls close on election day.

The manual counts must include a tally of the election day votes cast across every race and ballot measure that appears on the ballot in each of the two precincts. The count must also be open to the public, with the county canvassing board posting notice of the date, time and place of the county in four places in the county and on the homepage of the supervisor of elections website.

During the manual count, the county will compare the vote totals and report them to the Secretary of State by noon on the third day after any primary election and noon on the fifth day after any other election.

If a difference substantial enough to change the outcome of a race or ballot measure is discovered, then the Secretary of State must order a countywide manual recount of all election-day, vote-by-mail early voting, provisional and overseas ballots cast in the county for the race or ballot measure.

Any suspected irregularities or violations of law associated with the voting systems and election procedures in a county will be referred to the Office of Election Crimes and Security for further investigation.

Florida vote-by-mail ballot requests would be severely limited under SB 1752

The most controversial measure inside SB 1752 is how it confines who can request vote-by-mail ballots. Today, virtually any registered Florida voter can request a mail-in ballot for elections throughout a calendar year. However, SB 1752 would limit a request to a single election along with further restrictions on who could place a request.

To be eligible to vote by mail, voters would need to fall into one of the following:

Absent from the county of his or her residence

Unable to appear personally at the early voting site or polling place due to illness, physical disability or duties related to the primary care of someone ill, physically disabled or because they are or will be a hospital patient

A resident or patient of a U.S. Department of Affairs medical facility

Absent from his or her legal residence because he or she is confined to jail, provided that they are still qualified to vote in the precinct of their residence.

These requirements would not apply to voters already entitled to vote by mail under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

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