What’s In Florida’s New Election Integrity Law
Bottom Line: All eyes in Florida, and many across the country, were focused on Governor DeSantis’ official presidential announcement for obvious reasons. However, the bill he first had to sign to be able to make that announcement has significant implications for Florida’s elections processes moving forward. The focus of Florida’s Elections bill, to the extent people have paid attention to it, has been on the change to the state’s resign-to-run provision which allows for a currently elected official to run for president or vice-president without having to resign from their current post. While that was key to DeSantis being able to run for president while remaining our governor, the law has 98 pages full of additional reforms to Florida’s election processes. This includes several significant changes to the way elections will be conducted in Florida going forward. They include changes in these categories...
- New voters: Those voting for the first time in Florida who have yet to obtain a state-issued ID or have yet received a Social Security number, will have to vote in person
- 3rd Party Voter Registration Groups: Every 3rd party voter registration organization must reregister with the state for every cycle they participate in and must turn in all voter registration applications within 10 days (down from 14)
- Signature Verification: Mandatory education on signature analysis for those involved in the signature verification process for vote-by-mail ballots
- Election Workers: It's now a 3rd degree felony to intimidate, threaten, coerce or harass an election worker
- Public notices: Public notices may now be published online on official websites
- Campaign Finance: Reforms the timeline for campaign finance reporting and raises the penalty for violations from a maximum of $1,000 to $2,500
Most existing Florida voters won’t notice a change in the way they go about voting. The emphasis is on protecting the processes in place which have been effective for Florida over the previous two election cycles while also tightening up a couple of areas which could be taken advantage of by those with ill intent.