Florida’s Supervisors of Elections are unsure about the new Florida elections law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in May. The bill, SB 90, was a Republican priority issue designed to ensure election integrity, supporters said. However, supervisors of elections are having a difficult time implementing the new law they never supported.
Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Early said the relationship between the legislature and elections offices has become more strained because of the controversial legislation.
“This session was different. It was politically driven,” said Early. “The speed and the massive changes in the middle of the night prevented any good process where we could communicate with a dialogue back and forth to make sure that the statutes, I think, made sense. So now, we’ve got a lot of really big problems in the statutes for us to get through. Some of the worst aspects were taken out, but there are still these things that disenfranchise voters.”
The law will be implementing new requirements for ballot drop-boxes and mail-in voting. The drop boxes will have to be manned by elections office personnel at any time the box is receiving ballots during an election, and time to access the box will be limited. The Republicans who backed the legislation said the bill was necessary to ensure a fair election and prevent election controversy similar to what happened in some jurisdictions across the country during the 2020 election.
The bill is also the subject of multiple lawsuits from civil rights groups, claiming the bill discriminates against certain minority groups from voting.
“S.B. 90 represents a direct and swift backlash to Black voters’ historic turnout during the 2020 election season,” said Zachery Morris, Assistant Counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “The law’s suppressive and discriminatory provisions make it clear that the Florida Legislature’s goal is to erect additional hurdles to inhibit Florida voters, especially disabled voters, Black voters, and Latino voters, from accessing the ballot box. These efforts are shameful and they are not new. We cannot allow elected officials to suppress votes under the guise of election integrity.”
The supervisors of elections across Florida, who have to read the law and interpret its meaning have found gaps in the text. For Julie Marcus, Supervisor of Elections for Pinellas County, pointed out the new provision requires the number of ballots a person can drop off is reduced only to immediate family members plus two others.
“What are we supposed to ask the person?” asked Marcus. “What would you do if you were us, in a training session with ballot drop-off employees? I’m dying to know. I really am.”
Elections supervisors are already prepping for the election cycle next year, and the impact of the new legislation is already causing confusion.
“We’re all still struggling with how vague some of the new things put into law are,” Okaloosa County election supervisor Paul Lux told the Tampa Bay Times. “We need answers.”
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Ron DeSantis” by Governor Ron DeSantis.
