March 7, 2024
TALLAHASSEE — All Voting is Local’s Florida State Director Brad Ashwell issued the following statement in response to Wednesday’s vote by Hillsborough County commissioners to cut the county’s election budget by $200,000, despite the budget already being approved:
“This sizable cut to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections budget sets a dangerous precedent for elections in Florida if county officials can arbitrarily slash necessary funding whenever they want. County commissioners are making a very short-sighted decision by justifying the budget cut due to outreach by the supervisor of election to inactive voters.
“Years of suppressive voting legislation in the state are now bearing fruit. One of Florida’s many new anti-voter laws has made it more likely that voters will be removed from voter rolls through additional list maintenance, thus giving Hillsborough county commissioners a bogus excuse to take away already-approved funding for the supervisor of elections office. Funding for our elections directly improves essential voting functions that make the process less confusing or burdensome for voters.
“If sustained, this decision will negatively affect voters across the Tampa Bay area, and it has the horrifying potential to reverberate across the state if other counties follow suit.”