TALLAHASSEE — Brad Ashwell, Florida State Director of All Voting is Local, testified today before the Florida House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to voice concerns about the anti-voting measures contained in House Bill 7061.
In his testimony, Ashwell argued the creation of an Office of Election Crimes and Security is “costly and unnecessary,” raising the cap on aggregate annual fines against voter registration groups to $50,000 will have a chilling effect on voter turnout, and proposed measures may incorrectly remove people from the voter rolls.
“In addition to the issues detailed above, we have concerns about shortening the timeline for facilities to request supervised voting, further criminalizing voter assistance with harsher penalties and requiring additional residential address information for those who would currently be moved from inactive to active status when they update their registration information or request a mail ballot,” Ashwell said.
Read Ashwell’s full testimony here.
Background:
In addition to the creation of the unnecessary and costly Office of Election Crimes & Security, House Bill 7061 now mandates that supervisors of election perform voter list maintenance once a year instead of once every two years; it requires voters to now submit more personal identifying information than before and to put vote-by-mail ballots in three different envelopes; and it is now a third-degree felony for third party groups to collect ballots.
This comes just months after Gov. DeSantis signed Senate Bill 90 into law, which makes it harder for voters to request and return vote-by-mail ballots and get assistance while waiting in line to vote.