TALLAHASSEE — A coalition of voting rights groups today urged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto Senate Bill 524, which would have widespread consequences on elections in the state. The Florida Legislature recently passed the bill that, among other things, would create an Office of Election Crimes and Security and raise the cap of aggregate annual fines on third-party groups that register voters to $50,000.

TALLAHASSEE — All Voting is Local Florida State Director Brad Ashwell issued the following statement in response to the Florida Legislature passing Senate Bill 524 and House Bill 7061, which will deter voting in the state. Among other changes proposed by these bills, they will punish organizations participating in voter registration with harsher fines and will create a statewide office based on unfounded claims of election crimes:

ORLANDO, Fla. — All Voting is Local and its partners are hosting a community event in Orlando where voting rights advocates and faith leaders will denounce Florida legislation that further jeopardizes the freedom to vote.

TALLAHASSEE — Brad Ashwell, the Florida State Director of All Voting is Local, testified before the Florida House of Representatives’ Appropriations Committee to voice concerns about the anti-voting measures contained in House Bill 7061.

TALLAHASSEE — All Voting is Local Florida sent letters Friday requesting supervisors of elections in various counties throughout the state to offer voting materials in additional languages. Currently, election officials in most of these areas are only obligated to ensure accessibility for Spanish-speaking voters, due to clauses under the Voting Rights Act. Florida’s increasingly diverse population, however, has created the need for more provisions that cover widely spoken languages in the state like Haitian-Creole, Mandarin, German and Portuguese.

TALLAHASSEE — All Voting is Local Florida will host a virtual press briefing in partnership with fellow voting rights advocates on Monday, February 14 at 10 a.m. ET to express their concern over the drastic changes being proposed to Florida’s elections by current legislation.