TALLAHASSEE —All Voting is Local Florida and the Palm Beach County Chapter of ACLU of Florida are calling for Palm Beach county commissioners to fully approve the local supervisor of elections’ budget request to have the necessary resources to provide a secure and accessible voting process for the Nov. 2 election.
In a letter sent to the county commissioners, the groups write that Palm Beach’s elections will be less secure and less accessible for voters if officials do not approve the budget request. The county’s election chief must have the funding to pay for resources such as personal protective equipment, ballot drop boxes, and poll workers — all of which are critical to ensuring that voters can make their voices heard.
The Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections also needs funding to keep up with the stricter ID requirements required by the state’s restrictive voting law, SB 90, which passed earlier this year. As a result, election staff must spend more time and resources confirming voters’ identifications and notifying voters if they cannot.
This budget issue is urgent since Florida’s legislature blocked election supervisors in the state from receiving private funding, despite being able to do so in past elections. Without an approved budget request, Palm Beach won’t receive the resources it needs to ensure a smooth election process.
“We fear that if the Supervisor’s budget request is not approved, these unfunded requirements will jeopardize the security and accessibility of Palm Beach elections and hamper the ability of the Supervisor to fulfill her duty to the citizens of Palm Beach,” the groups wrote.
The full letter can be found here and was signed by All Voting is Local Florida and the Palm Beach County Chapter of ACLU of Florida.