FL Lawmakers Propose to Reform State Election Laws

The 2018 midterm election drew controversy as it came to a close. Subsequent weeks were filled with major recounts and Republicans decrying shady tactics taking place in order to steer the election in favor of the Democrats. It resulted in Dr. Brenda Snipes being removed from her job as the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, and that itself was its own contentious battle that took weeks to resolve.

As the 2020 Presidential election fast approaches, Florida lawmakers are now looking to fix the mistakes of the past, and they’re focusing on reworking the sunshine state’s elections laws in order to silence the criticism of Florida being the “laughingstock” of the United States.

Congressman Blaise Ingoglia, the former chairman of the Republican Party, is now sponsoring a House proposal that gained unanimous support from the House State Affairs Committee this week. What the proposal addresses is expanded access to voting by making changes to deadlines that would allow voters and local elections supervisors with more time to not only count ballots but to also submit them as well.

With the proposal, constituents would be able to address problems with fixing their signatures on their vote-by-mail and provisional ballots, which would be extended to two days after the election. Also, supervisors would be able to mail any domestic vote-by-mail ballots earlier to constituents between 40 and 28 days before elections. In addition, taking ballot selfies would also no longer be banned. Finally, the 2020 primary would be held a week earlier on August 18th.

In an effort to bring greater transparency to the voting process in the sunshine state, Florida Democratic Congressman Bobby Dubose vowed to “keep a watchful eye” on Ingoglia and the bill as it moved forward. The Democrat from Fort Lauderdale argued that in order to have a successful 2020 Presidential election, “we need to make sure we take into account all things that are a potential variable to make our election process the best process it can be.”