Voting law passes in Florida, with new restrictions on drop boxes

Gainesville, Fla — The passing of Senate Bill 90 means new voting rules for all Floridians.

Director of the non-profit, All Voting is Local Florida, Brad Ashwell, said the new changes make it harder for people to vote. “It’s a pretty radical change to voting laws in Florida, and it really does a lot to decrease accessibility to voting rather than increasing it," he said.

All Voting is Local Florida works to remove discriminatory barriers to voting. Ashwell calls the new law, a violation of Floridians civic responsibility. "There are so many barriers and little gotcha provisions in the law that lead to voters not being able to vote. Voters that are eligible to vote are being disenfranchised and removed of that vote," he said.

Alachua County Supervisor of Elections, Kim Barton, said one of the changes most concerning is the new restrictions to the mail-in drop box. "Here in Alachua County we’re so used to having our drop-box available 24/7. No longer will our video surveillance suffice, we have cameras it doesn’t matter. It has to be manned by an employee of the Supervisor of Election, so that’s going to be a big change for our voters," she said.

Representative Yvonne Hayes who voted against SB90, calls it a broad sweep of voter suppression. "I never seen a body of people who claim to have held the best election ever, in the history of the state of Florida, to do what they're doing to suppress the vote. These drop boxes have been a huge blessing to those who have to vote by mail,” said Hayes.

The Governor called for the legislation two months ago in his State of the State Address. "Let's stay ahead of the curve on election administration. We never want to see the chaos of twenty years ago rear its ugly head in Florida again," said DeSantis.

The Alachua County Supervisor of Elections said they will continue to do their best to educate the public on all the new changes.