At the same time pro-democracy advocates in Wisconsin were speaking out against their state's latest suppressive legislation yesterday, the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee in Florida also had election reform on the agenda.
SPB 7068 – which cleared a procedural hurdle on March 10 and is expected to come back before the Committee later this month – addresses a number of issues, including the use of certain drop-off locations for the submission of absentee ballots. Last year, Secretary of State Ken Detzner issued a directive against the use of some drop-off sites, such as tax collector offices and county library branches, despite their use in Pinellas County since 2008.
Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark:
I do not understand why the secretary of state, the chief elections official for the state of Florida, would want to eliminate an option that voters have to participate by returning their ballot to the ballot dropoff locations.
Even US Senator Bill Nelson has joined the absentee ballot fray, telling Committee Chairman Jack Latvala:
The last thing Floridians need are laws that make it harder for them to exercise their right to vote.
Chairman Latvala hit back, claiming that Supervisor Clark needs to focus more on early voting and less on absentee ballots.
In other voting rights news, Minnesota moves closer to resolving its turf war over online voter registration, and Ohio considers putting voters' rights on the November ballot.
Check out even more news from our friends at Fair Elections Legal Network.