“I don’t think there’s any other place in the country that you should have more confidence that your vote counts than in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said Monday during the bill signing event at a sports bar north of the Tampa Bay area. MORE GOVERNMENT - “ DeSantis signs bill creating of the nation’s only election police units ,” by POLITICO’s Gary Fineout: The Republican governor had proposed the creation of a special unit to tackle election crimes as he came under pressure from some Republicans to do a full-blown audit of the 2020 election even though former President Donald Trump had little trouble winning Florida. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch: WHERE'S RON? - Nothing official scheduled for Gov. But maybe this office is more about the next election - when a Floridian might be running for president. The funding doesn’t kick in until July, which means the department won’t have a lot of time to hire people and get the office functioning. (Some of this appears connected to the bumpy way that state and local election officials tried to implement Amendment 4, which restored voting rights to some felons, but not all of them.) Supervisors have also reported lots of problems with petitions submitted late last year in connection to a proposed gambling citizen initiative.ĭeadlines - One key question is whether this new office will have much of a role in this year’s election. Susan Valdes, a Tampa Democrat.īackground - Florida did not have any reports of widespread fraud in the last election, although there are now investigations in several counties about whether several dozen people with felony convictions were allowed to register and vote in 2020. “No Floridian should fear reprisal from an unaccountable agency with a nebulous mission simply because they wanted to register their fellow citizens to vote or help a neighbor turn in their mail ballot,” said Rep. But it does increase the criminal penalties for some election law violations, including “ballot harvesting” or the collection of more than two mail-in ballots by non-family members. Parts of the new law are not going to be enforced by the state due to a recent ruling by Chief U.S. They're also fearful it will be used to target political opponents of the governor. Not on board - That hasn’t assuaged Democrats who debated in opposition to this year’s election bill and remain skeptical about the need for the new election unit. attorney?) The governor gets to select the head of FDLE, but the choice also requires approval from two of the three members of the Florida Cabinet. (Which is about to get new management… an ambitious former U.S. In the end, the GOP-controlled Legislature declined to place sworn law enforcement investigators directly under Lee’s control and instead put ten of the new positions in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Tweaked - The governor did not get exactly what he wanted from the Legislature. (Her office has declined to go into much detail about this but has acknowledged them.)
Lee and DeSantis said such an audit wasn’t needed, but Lee herself became the target of threats. Some context - DeSantis proposed this new election crimes unit at a time when he - as well as Lee - were coming under pressure from corners of the Republican Party in the state who wanted the same kind of full-blown “forensic” audit that had occurred in Arizona in response to the false stolen-election claims coming from former President Donald Trump. The budget he will sign (let’s assume sometime in late May) includes enough money ($2.6 million) to pay for 25 positions with the new effort. DeSantis signed the bill at a sports bar called “Rookies” in Pasco County amid a receptive crowd and lots of fellow Republicans. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill into law creating a new election police - officially called the “Office of Election Crimes and Security" - that will be responsible for looking into voter fraud accusations and other violations of election law. Get that resume ready - Well, Secretary of State Laurel Lee can officially hang up the "help wanted" sign.ĭoes that come with a badge? - Florida Gov.