First State Times

Critics are assailing an election integrity bill signed on May 6 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that some claim compares favorably to election laws in Delaware, the home state of President Joe Biden, an early critic of such bills.

Florida’s new election integrity bill, Senate Bill 90 strengthens existing voter identification requirements, prohibits mass mailing of ballots, bans ballot harvesting and prohibits private money from running elections in Florida, a press release from DeSantis’ office said. 

The bill also requires that voters requesting vote-by-mail ballots ask for those ballots “for each election cycle they intend to vote by mail.”

While Biden has criticized election integrity bills such as Georgia’s, saying it suppresses voters, particularly in restrictions on absentee ballots, his home state of Delaware is among states with limited voting options in that it “allowed little mail balloting before the pandemic hit,” The Atlantic said. An analysis showed that Delaware joined New York and Connecticut in ranking in the bottom third of “states in their access to early and mail-in balloting," The Atlantic said.

“Delaware won’t debut early voting until 2022, and the 10-day period the state plans to offer still falls short of the 15-day minimum congressional Democrats have proposed in their voting-rights legislation,” The Atlantic said.

Delaware law requires that residents “must give a valid reason” for voting absentee, “such as being ill or disabled,” Delaware Online said. “State lawmakers changed the requirement in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now trying to make it permanent.” 

DeSantis said on a May 6 Facebook post that the action taken in Senate Bill 90 this legislative session will "increase transparency and strengthen the security of our elections.” 

“Floridians can rest assured that their votes count and that Florida will continue to conduct elections that are efficient, transparent and secure,” DeSantis said.

But opposition groups such as the League of Women Voters of Florida have described SB 90 as a “voter suppression bill,” and have filed a lawsuit against state and local election officials to block voting measures in the bill, LWVFL’s May 21 Facebook post said.

“Our organization has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the election law’s constitutionality,” LWVFL’s May 12 Facebook post said.

Biden urged Congress to pass the For the People Act of 2021 (House Resolution 1) in light of Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signing on March 26 of Senate Bill 202 that Biden said in a statement denies “people the right to vote.” H.R. 1 in part would ban state voter ID laws, “forcing states to allow individuals to vote without an ID” and “mandate no-fault absentee ballots,” The Heritage Foundation said.

“While Florida already requires identification to vote, Senate Bill 90 will require additional identification information when changing any voter registration information, or requesting a vote by mail ballot, preventing fraud and securing the voter rolls,” the DeSantis press release said.

Seventy-five percent of likely U.S. voters believe voter photo identification should be required for voting, while 21% oppose the requirement, a March 2021 Rasmussen Reports survey found. Similarly, Honest Elections Project found that 77% of voters support mandatory voter ID.

Florida will continue to be “a leader in ballot integrity,” DeSantis said in the press release. “Elections should be free and fair, and these changes will ensure this continues to be the case in the Sunshine State."