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The League of Women Voters of Florida, ACLU of Florida, All Voting is Local, Common Cause and NAACP Florida State Conference urged the public to oppose new proposed legislation that amounts to, they said, voter suppression.
State Bill 90 is currently headed for the Rules Committee, the last stop before heading to the senate floor.
The bill would ban drop boxes for mail-in ballots and require additional hoops when requesting mail-in ballots.
The organizations charge that the changes are unnecessary, especially considering how smoothly last year’s election went.
“They are attempting to “improve” when they would do the opposite by placing added burdens on Florida’s voters and election supervisors,” League of Women Voters of Florida President Patricia Brigham said. “These changes are completely unnecessary and all 67 election supervisors agree.”
“We don’t believe there is a problem that necessitates any of this,” All Voting is Local Florida State Director Brad Ashwell said.
The voting rights groups added that provisions in the bill would add additional costs, make it harder for people to vote, and increase the workload for county election supervisors.
Ultimately, they argued, the bill would turn back time, and erase the progress that ensured the largest ever voting turnout in state history in 2020.
“We’re going to fight this, because we’ve got to make sure that our rights are maintained — there are too many rights we have fought for. We haven’t come this far to turn around now,” NAACP Florida State Conference President Adora Obi Nweze said.
