Heritage Action praised the Florida legislature after it passed SB 90, an election integrity bill which Executive Director Jessica Anderson said will help ensure it is “easy to vote and hard to cheat” in the Sunshine State.
The bill passed on Thursday and now makes its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) desk. He has indicated he will sign the measure, which enhances voter ID requirements and places restrictions on ballot drop boxes, ballot harvesting, and absentee voting.
“Today is a historic day for the Sunshine State,” Anderson said a statement. “At a time when trust in our nation’s elections is dropping to historic lows, Florida lawmakers are taking decisive action to improve the transparency and security of the state’s elections.”
“SB 90 contains numerous provisions to protect the votes of Floridians, including a ban on the use of private money to fund election operations, improved observation of the signature verification process, preventions against mass mailing of absentee ballots, and additional protections against ballot trafficking by political operatives,” she continued, noting the actions are those which the national conservative grassroots organization has continued to advocate for:
These measures, which Heritage Action advocated for and partnered with thousands of grassroots activists to support, will help ensure it is easy to vote and hard to cheat in Florida. Every Floridian has the right to know that their votes are counted and their elections are transparent and secure. We thank Rep. Blaise Ingoglia and Sen. Dennis Baxley for their hard work on this legislation, and we look forward to Governor DeSantis signing the bill into law.
Democrats, meanwhile, are recycling their arguments against basic election integrity measures, applying many of the critiques they have used against Georgia to the Sunshine State. One Democrat state lawmaker, Rep. Omari Hardy, bluntly asserted the measure is “the revival of Jim Crow in this state.”
“I take some issue with the fact that we are trying to somehow restrict the vote,” Rep. Ralph Massullo (R) said, responding to the critiques of his colleagues. “There are more ways to vote in Florida, and a longer opportunity, than just about any state in the nation. You all know that.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to sign the bill.
“Oh, for sure,” the governor said when asked if he would sign the measure to add security to Florida’s elections.
“[In] Florida, we have voter ID. We’ve had voter ID. It worked. It’s the right thing to do. We didn’t do unsolicited mail ballots this last election. We made sure the right people were in place, and the result was, we counted 11 million votes by midnight on election night,” he told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham during a Thursday town hall in Orlando, Florida.
“It was free. It was fair. It was transparent,” he added:
Florida’s legislature last night passed SB90, a far-reaching bill to restrict voting. It follows similar legislation in Georgia and Texas.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says “for sure” he’ll sign it. pic.twitter.com/0b4FkeJeJE
— The Recount (@therecount) April 30, 2021
