The Florida Senate passed a voting law measure that establishes an Office of Election Crimes to ensure election integrity.
Senate Bill 524 states:
Requiring the Secretary of State to notify the Attorney General if signatures required for an initiative petition are no longer valid; creating the Office of Election Crimes and Security within the Department of State; revising the frequency with which supervisors of elections must conduct a registration list maintenance program; requiring the Department of State to identify deceased registered voters using information received by specified agencies; requiring specified individuals observing...
The 23-15 vote in the Republican-controlled Senate was along party lines and advances the bill to the House and then, if passed, to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.Under the measure, the governor would also be required to appoint 10 special officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to augment the office. They would be dedicated to investigating violations of election law. Current state law allows the governor to appoint such officers but does not require him to do so.
Another measure in the law package includes increasing the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony for ballot harvesting—described in the bill as “[u]nlawfully distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, delivering, or possessing vote-by-mail ballots.” The legislation also increases fines for certain election law violations, and requires election supervisors to maintain their voter lists annually rather than every two years.“What are we really afraid of here?” Sen.
DeSantis, who has pushed for stricter election integrity laws in Florida, is expected to sign the bill into law.