Name: DeSantis making ‘deceitful claims’ to justify changes in Florida voting laws, his critics say
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DeSantis making ‘deceitful claims’ to justify changes in Florida voting laws, his critics say

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AdvertisementBy South Florida Sun SentinelFeb 26, 2021 at 6:02 pmFlorida’s top Republicans and Democrats are completely in agreement — a remarkably rare occurrence — about a controversial subject: the 2020 election.Voting in Florida went off virtually flawlessly, both sides agree, with results tallied accurately and reported quickly. Even so, Florida is preparing to change its election laws.AdvertisementThe moves are being and the Republicans who control the state Legislature. They have the votes to make whatever changes they want in the state election code during the annual legislative session, which starts Tuesday.The cumulative effect of the proposals would be to make it more difficult for Democrats to win elections in 2022 — when the Republican governor will be seeking re-election.AdvertisementDemocrats are crying foul, but they’re powerless to stop the changes. They’ve been complaining, and did so again Friday.“These election bills and proposals are not solutions. They are problems in and of themselves. And they equate to nothing short of a massive voter suppression campaign, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Jim Crow days,” said state Sen. Gary Farmer, a Broward Democrat who is his party’s leader in the Florida Senate.U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, said it’s part of a nationwide effort by Republicans who are making “deceitful claims” about elections and using “manufactured fears of fraud.”Republicans are building on the narrative that President Donald Trump, Republican elected officials and conservative media outlets pushed after the 2020 presidential election — what Wasserman Schultz called “The big lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It’s a destructive and dangerous lie.” are the central flashpoint. Republicans have proposed various changes in the rules for requesting and returning mail ballots — including cancelling all previous requests.Under current law, if someone requests a mail ballot, the request lasts for two general elections. So someone who asked for a ballot for the presidential election last year would automatically get one for the .DeSantis and state Sen. , chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, wants to cancel those mail ballot requests. Legislation sponsored by the Ocala Republican would make mail ballot requests good for one calendar year only.Farmer and other Democrats said there’s one clear reason for that proposed change: Democrats now have 800,000-plus advantage over Republicans in mail-ballot requests the year before the gubernatorial election.AdvertisementFor almost two decades, Florida has allowed people to request mail ballots for any reason, and Republicans used it more — until 2020, when Democrats, concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic, used mail balloting more than Republicans. Because the requests last for two years, Democrats have an advantage.Republicans also want to impose other limitations on mail balloting: prohibiting people from collecting mail ballots from voters and returning them to elections offices, and restricting the availability of drop boxes for people who want to use a mail ballot but don’t want to rely on the Postal Service to return it.The motivation, Democrats said, is to disenfranchise voters.“Governor DeSantis and my Republican colleagues desire to take us back to the 1960s,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Broward Democrat. “They’re trying to silence the voices of people who look like me.” Jones is Black.State Rep. Blaise Ingoglia of Spring Hill, a member of the House Public Integrity &amp; Elections Committee, who appeared with DeSantis in West Palm Beach on Feb. 19 to unveil the Republican efforts, said the criticisms are shallow and predictable.He said Democrats routinely criticize proposed election law changes — even the laws under which the 2020 election was successfully run, as “voter suppression.”Advertisement“When Democrats scream ‘voter suppression,’ it is mostly an intellectually dishonest argument,” he said. “The other thing is that if they’re claiming that we had no issues in the last election, they clearly weren’t paying attention. Because there were issues, specifically with the drop boxes.”Ingoglia, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, said he authored the part of the law that allowed the use of drop boxes for people to return their mail ballots if they didn’t want to use the Postal Service. But he said they became too much of a security risk when some county elections officials didn’t ensure they were always watched by a person, instead of relying on a video camera.Democrats said the drop boxes proved popular with voters and there weren’t security breaches.Baxley rejected the Democrats’ assessment of what the Republicans are doing. “They’re notorious for projecting motives onto other people. That’s not the path of my thinking. I’m all about security.”The at the New York University law school said Florida is among 33 states where lawmakers are pursuing legislation to restrict voting. The Brennan Center reports 165 such bills have been filed this year, compared to 35 in February 2020.Ever since the election, Trump and his supporters have pushed the idea that there was something wrong with the election, and that President Joe Biden didn’t win.AdvertisementThere is no evidence the election was stolen. Republican elections officials, and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud. Federal judges appointed by Trump issued multiple opinions finding there was no basis to the claims of irregularities. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who championed everything Trump wanted in the last four years, said Biden was the clear, legitimate winner.But claims of election issues have become a major way for Republican politicians to appeal to their party’s voters. Republicans have sent out fundraising pitches claiming election fraud. It was a centerpiece of sessions Friday in Orlando on the , known as CPAC.Florida Republicans have been walking a fine line. They don’t want to disrupt the narrative of Trump supporters, but they don’t try to argue that there were problems with the 2020 election in Florida.DeSantis, who is seen as a likely 2024 presidential candidate if he wins re-election next year, played a part. During his remarks Friday at CPAC, DeSantis bragged about how well Florida ran its voting last year — and pledged to tighten laws.Wasserman Schultz, who said she can translate “DeSantis-ese,” said the governor is “talking out of both sides of his mouth.”Farmer said the Florida Republicans proposals are “solutions in search of an imaginary problems.”AdvertisementOne DeSantis proposal would ban mailing unsolicited mail ballots. Florida doesn’t send unrequested ballots, and an analysis last year by the Broward County Attorney’s Office addressed that exact question — and stated flatly that it is . Ballots can go only to people who request them.WeeklyGet latest updates political news from Central Florida and across the state. &gt; A DeSantis spokeswoman, in response to the Democrats’ criticisms, pointed to what the governor said when he announced the election proposals. DeSantis’ statement touted the state’s 2020 performance — but argued there’s always room for improvement.“Last November, Florida held the smoothest, most successful election of any state in the country. While we should celebrate this feat, we should not rest on our laurels,” DeSantis said. “We are taking action to ensure that Florida remains a leader on key issues regarding our electoral process, such as ballot integrity, public access to election information, transparency of election reporting and more. By strengthening these election integrity protections, we will ensure that our elections remain secure and transparent, and that Florida’s electoral process remains a blueprint for other states to follow.”Baxley made a similar argument.“We had an incredibly successful election, and it’s imperative that we look forward. We don’t need to wait for a problem to develop. I think there’s some improvements that we can make,” Baxley said. “I want it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”During a video news conference on Friday, state Rep. Michael Gottlieb, a Broward Democrat, used DeSantis’ words about how well the 2020 election went in Florida to show changes weren’t needed.Advertisement“If it’s not broken what are we fixing? If the system has worked what are we doing?” he said. “It’s like trying to put lipstick on the Mona Lisa. Leave it alone.”Anthony Man can be reached at or on Twitter @ Advertisement

AdvertisementBy South Florida Sun SentinelFeb 26, 2021 at 6:02 pmFlorida’s top Republicans and Democrats are completely in agreement — a remarkably rare occurrence — about a controversial subject: the 2020 election.Voting in Florida went off virtually flawlessly, both sides agree, with results tallied accurately and reported quickly. Even so, Florida is preparing to change its election laws.AdvertisementThe moves are being and the Republicans who control the state Legislature. They have the votes to make whatever changes they want in the state election code during the annual legislative...

DeSantis making ‘deceitful claims’ to justify changes in Florida voting laws, his critics say

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