TALLAHASSEE - All Voting is Local Florida and Chispa Florida urged all 67 Florida Supervisors of Elections last week to use their local authority to protect voters as they implement the state’s new restrictive voting law - SB 90. 

Brad Ashwell, the state director for All Voting is Local, said changes due to the law could keep a lot of voters away.

“Any time there is an obstacle to voting, it’s going to disproportionately impact more vulnerable communities and those communities that are already challenged by the existing system. That’s typically Black voters, Hispanic voters,” he said.

“By erecting onerous barriers to request and return a vote-by-mail ballot, this legislature has made voting a test of stamina and resources rather than a statement of civic responsibility,” said Brad Ashwell, Florida state director for All Voting is Local, a national voting rights group.

By signing the bill, said the civil rights organization All Voting Is Local-Florida, "DeSantis is continuing a disturbing, nationwide trend of turning lies into legislation."

"The truth is during the 2020 election cycle, Floridians refused to choose between their health and the right to vote, casting vote-by-mail ballots in record numbers so they could safely and securely steer the fate of our democracy," said Brad Ashwell, director of the organization.

"SB90 weaponizes lies and uses them as a basis to exact a vendetta against Floridians, assaulting our freedom to vote. There is no integrity in restricting access to the ballot box.”

"Data from county supervisors collected by All Voting is Local, a nonpartisan voting rights group, does not show whether minority voters tended to use drop boxes more than other groups.

It’s also not clear how many Floridians would be prohibited from requesting vote-by-mail ballots because they don’t have a driver’s license, state ID or a Social Security number, although Brad Ashwell, All Voting is Local’s Florida state director, said such laws have a history of affecting minority voters.

“Study after study have shown they have a disproportionate impact on Black voters and other minority voters,” Ashwell said."

"The bill "seeks to silence voters’ voices based on what they look like or where they come from," voting- and civil-rights activists from more than 20 local and national groups — including the NAACP and the Florida chapters of the ACLU and All Voting is Local — wrote in a letter to DeSantis sent before he signed the bill."