Statehouse Democrats oppose GOP election reform bill; Elections Supervisors like the reforms
Two influential county Supervisors of Elections are defending a Republican-sponsored proposal that Democrats are labeling as “voter suppression.”
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican from Hernando County, makes a number of changes to the Florida Election Code, including moving the last day for voters to request vote-by-mail ballots from six days before an election to 10 days. And it prohibits Supervisors of Slections from mailing out ballots less than eight days before the election instead of four days, as is currently the law.
That’s provoked the ire of the Florida Democratic Party, which calls the bill another example of GOP-led “voter suppression.” The party issued a memo last week claiming that if the proposed bill were in place last fall, the dates changing when vote-by-mail ballots can be requested and delivered “could” have invalidated more than 53,000 votes.
“Throwing out more than 53,000 votes would have had a tremendous impact on races up and down the ballot in a 2018 election year in which three statewide races, and multiple legislative elections, were decided by a recount,” wrote Juan Penalosa, the party’s executive director. “Had HB 7101 been law in 2018, the outcomes of those races could have been dramatically different – but more importantly, the voices of as many as 53,929 votes would have been silenced.”
Read more: https://www.floridaphoenix.com/blog/statehouse-democrats-oppose-gop-election-reform-bill-elections-supervisors-like-the-reforms/
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