Florida House Passes Election Integrity Legislation, Securing State Elections and Protecting Voters’ Voices
- BY FGA
NAPLES, FL—The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) applauds the Florida House of Representatives for passing Senate Bill 524, once again leading the nation in securing future elections. This legislation, coupled with the election integrity measures passed in last year’s Senate Bill 90, will make Florida’s elections among the most transparent and trusted in the country.
S.B. 524, which passed on the floor today with a 76-41 vote, includes provisions that:
- establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Florida Department of State to investigate and defer matters for prosecution against alleged occurrences of election law violations or irregularities;
- move toward ID requirements for absentee vote-by-mail ballots;
- prohibit ranked-choice voting;
- clean voter rolls;
- create harsher penalties for ballot harvesters;
- discourage non-citizen voting, illegal signature collection practices for ballot initiative petitions, and premature disclosure(s) of election results; and
- strengthen last year’s ban to prohibit private funding of elections (Zuckerbucks ban).
The bill is now headed to Governor Ron DeSantis’s desk for signature. Gov. DeSantis and Secretary of State Laurel Lee have continued to push to make the Florida elections process better and better each year.
“The work of the House and the Senate this year to tackle another set of critical election reforms will greatly increase transparency and trust in the democratic process,” said Rep. Daniel Perez, Chair of the Public Integrity and Elections Committee. “We won’t stop our continual pursuit of commonsense election reforms that protect Florida voters.”
Last year’s election integrity bill, S.B. 90, enforces voter ID, prevents ballot harvesting, secures drop boxes, prohibits the private funding of elections, and helps ensure that voter rolls are up to date and accurate for each election.
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The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that promotes public policy solutions to create opportunities for every American to experience the American Dream. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.
