Sunburn â The morning read of whatâs hot in Florida politics â 3.15.21
Here s your AM rundown of people, politics and policy in the Sunshine State.
Imagine youâre in the Super Bowl, and you break free after recovering a fumble for an easy touchdown run. Youâre inches from the goal line and start celebrating a bit too early when a speedy wide receiver slaps the ball from your hand, causing another fumble and denying what should have been an easy score.
You know, like
Don
Thereâs an analogy in here for Gov.
Ron
DeSantisâ continued COVID-19 response. Despite some early fumbles, Florida has fared comparatively well and, despite all of the partisan hating against him, heâs been right plenty of times.
As Republican activists across the country work to enact new voting rules being touted by supporters as election integrity measures and slammed by critics as voter suppression, Sarasota lawmaker Joe Gruters is square in the middle of the nationwide battle.
The bill advanced, but Republican lawmakers on the committee weren’t jumping up to sing its praises.
Florida ran a smooth election in 2020, so it is hard to justify big changes.
Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays, known as one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate when he served in the Legislature, slammed the legislation, saying it “played havoc with the lives of 1.5 million Floridians” who used mail ballot drop boxes in 2020.
Florida Senate bill could ban drop boxes for mail-in ballots
Published: March 12, 2021 2:40 PM EST
Updated: March 12, 2021 6:27 PM EST
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During the 2020 election, a large number of people used drop boxes to cast their votes.
In Florida, close to 5 million people voted by mail-in ballots to cast their vote in the November election, many of them dropped their ballots off at drop boxes, which was helpful during the pandemic.
In Lee County alone, Supervisor of Elections Tommy Doyle said 95,000 people, or about 25% of voters, cast their votes via dropbox.
DeSantis, who once touted the success of Florida’s November election process, supports the Senate bill to get rid of drop boxes. The bill would also force voters to sign up for mail-in ballots every year instead of every two years and it would restrict the handling of the mail-in ballots to immediate family members only.