Pushback Against Voter Integrity Bills in Florida Assembly
Many good reforms may die in committee. Leadership will not focus on comprehensive voter integrity reform in 2024.
If the 2020 election cycle taught America anything, it was the reality that elections in the USA are being increasingly manipulated. More opportunities that create voter convenience through mail-in ballot initiatives, drop boxes, extended absentee voting periods to even days after the official Election Day, computer manipulation, and registration loopholes give opportunity for unintentional irregularities and outright fraud.
In the month preceding Election Day 2020, the Supreme Court permitted Pennsylvania to extend absentee voting by three days and to extend the same in North Carolina by nine days. However, a majority of Justices struck down Wisconsin’s request to do the same. “Different bodies of law and different precedents govern these two situations and require, in these particular circumstances, that we allow the modification of election rules in Pennsylvania but not Wisconsin," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority 5-3 opinion.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court said Texas, who was enjoined by a majority of states and over 100 federal lawmakers, “lacked standing” when TX Attorney General, Ken Paxton filed suit at the Supreme Court against, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin for their controversial election irregularities. Many Americans watched online video of election workers running the same ballots repeatedly through counting processes, shutting down tabulation in three states simultaneously, and other nefarious activity. The inconsistency of taking up certain state issues in a federal election, but not others, has left the citizen uncertain about the integrity of their own singular vote.
Recently, a poll conducted by Rasmussen and the Heartland Institute, discovered 20% of respondents, who voted by mail during the 2020 presidential election, admit to participating in at least one kind of voter fraud. In an election where 43% of voters cast ballots by mail, that amount of illegality is treacherous. The poll found 17% said they voted “in a state where you were no longer a permanent resident.” Another 21% of those polled responded “Yes” to the question, “During the 2020 election, did you fill out a ballot, in part or in full, on behalf of a friend or family member, such as a spouse or child,” and an additional 17% of respondents admitted to signing a “ballot or ballot envelope on behalf of a friend or family member.”
Since the great Bush V Gore case in 2000, Florida has made many advancements in election integrity. However, electronic voting that is centrally controlled by a vendor who holds proprietary access, has raised concern by many voter advocacy groups. Indeed, 35 voting systems in the USA were found to have online connectivity. Even Dominion Voting Systems has admitted to internet access in real-time as votes are being taken into custody for counting purposes. In essence, Supervisors of Elections are made to blindly trust the corporate operators of their own local voting systems.
One election integrity advocacy group, Defend Florida, has been lobbying since the last presidential cycle to change laws that will tighten election operations, chain of custody ballot requirements, clean-up voter rolls and voter registration processes. In 2021, Defend Florida conducted a canvassing of homes based on voter registration data from the Florida Department of State. Their canvassing showed thousands of registered voters had not participated in elections for the last ten years to never participating in an election. In Indian River County, Defend Florida leadership said, “there were nearly 10,000 voters in this county, which at the time of our survey, county registrations numbered around 115,000.”
All 67 counties were canvassed by Defend Florida. Indian River’s sample showed 28% of the 777 surveyed were not correct. That percentage was above average with the highest being Palm Beach County at 59%. The top ten counties where Defend Florida filed notarized affidavits to clean-up voter rolls registered 30% or more of homes canvassed.
House and Senate leadership has been leery of taking up real reform measures. This year, leaders only want one bill, HB 721- Harassment of Election Workers, that “prohibits person from intimidating, threatening, coercing, or harassing election worker with specified intent; provides criminal penalties.”
Indeed, HB 721, a Criminal Justice Subcommittee bill sponsored by Rep. Joe Casello (D - Palm Beach) is a simplified two page bill. The original version creates a new law stating:
“A person may not intimidate, threaten, coerce, harass, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or harass an ‘election worker’ with the intent to impede or interfere with the performance of the election worker's official duties or with the intent to retaliate against such election worker for the performance of official duties. A person who violates this section commits a felony in the third degree.”
The bill has since been amended on the Senate side reducing the charge to a first degree misdemeanor. HB 721 defines “election worker” to mean, “A member of a county canvassing board or an individual who is an election official or poll worker in connection with an election conducted in this state.”
Some claim HB 721 could chill speech as advocates for voter integrity work at the local level. Indian River County Defend Florida leadership has severe problems with it. They said, “There are statutes that protect citizens already. Yet, this bill creates a class of people that get special protections from those who may openly criticize their work. As advocates for transparency and integrity, we could potentially be criminally charged for speaking out, if this bill is passed.”
In the 2024 Florida legislative session, House member, Berny Jacques (R - Pinellas Co.) is sponsoring House Bill 359, An Act Relating to Voting Systems. A more comprehensive bill, SB 1752 sponsored by Senator Blaise Ingoglia (R) is still in committee. Critics find Ingoglia’s cumbersome legislation too burdensome to move for a vote. Jacques’ House bill would amend statute 101.5604 to “allow counties to count ballots by hand at the precinct level.”
Supervisors can still use electromechanical tabulation systems, or do hand counts at the precinct level. Since its first reading on January 9th, Jacques bill has seen very little movement.
Senator Ingoglia’s bill demands more accountability of vote processes through the establishment of a County Canvassing Board to “conduct a manual count in certain precincts before certification of certain elections,” as well as, providing for the random selection of precincts subject to the manual count by the Secretary of State,” including, for the Secretary of State “to order a countywide manual recount if certain conditions are met…”
Beyond hand count initiatives, both bills require any electronic systems purchased to be provided by USA based companies only. The issues of ballot custody and tabulation have arisen out of the nature of electronic voting systems created by companies. The software design of these systems is usually proprietary. Access is reserved for authorized company employees. Historically, the companies not only provide the equipment but then have extended service contracts with each county. While Rep. Jacques legislation, HB 359, requires all software applications be available for public record, Senator Ingoglia’s bill demands that all software application and operations be “open source.” County information technology staff could service electronic voting systems increasing local accountability. Indian River County Defend Florida shared with The Sunshine Journal that “our electronic voting systems are not secured. The level to which these systems are certified is from 2005.”
The noted interest in election integrity by multiple groups of advocates working together has changed the importance of the voting integrity issue in some lawmaker’s minds. The Republican Liberty Caucus recently sent out a call to action notice for Senate Bill 1256 / House Bill 135 to clarify declaring party affiliation when registering or updating DMV information. It is estimated that 10-15% of non-party affiliated (NPA) voters were automatically assigned NPA when these citizens, thinking their information would remain the same, have gone to the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew driver’s licenses. Advocates believe this bill has promise for passage.
House Rep. Rick Roth commented to citizen advocates in Tallahassee about accountability processes. Rep. Roth has put forth HB 1669 to specifically qualify mail-in ballots, absentee vote processing and other chain of custody measures which are included in Senator Ingoglia’s lofty SB 1752.
He said,
“I want to kill a myth that Florida has the best election system in the USA and we don’t need anymore fixes. We know that’s not true. There has been a lot of change since I was elected… vote-by-mail has exploded. In Palm Beach County, we have had 600,000 people voting vote-by-mail. In my bill we have certification for certain voting systems, but, there is other equipment like tabulators and sorters, that are not certified…. Also, what is in Senator Ingoglia’s bill, that is in my bill, is that we need to have qualified vote-by-mail ballots. We don’t have ballot security in the state of Florida. Let me put it to you this way, we need to treat our ballots like money.”
Rep. Roth expressed at the January 17th press conference that he is hopeful to get passage of a bill on voter integrity this year. However, it doesn’t look like it. Instead, the Florida Assembly may even make vocalizing concerns about “election workers” a crime.