Opponents of Senate Bill 7050 are vowing to chip away at the new law with amendments during the next legislative session.
“I am planning on meeting with people on the elections committees over the summer and into committee week starting in September,” said Jonathan Webber, Florida policy director with the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Dubbed an anti-voter law by the SPLC, SB 7050 was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last month.
“Eventually we will be able to reduce the impact of this bill and the ones that have come in previous years, and we will get back to a place where we can find some common-sense places in the future so people can participate more freely in elections,” Webber told the Florida Record.
SB 7050 imposes fines on registration applications that are not returned within 10 days and emergency restrictions on voters picking up absentee ballots.
“It's super harmful because this bill overall harms the voter registration process and makes it harder for people to participate in their elections,” Webber said in an interview. “Registering to vote and voting itself should be quick, easy, and intuitive. Maximum voter turnout and free and fair elections are what give our entire system of government its legitimacy.”
One of the provisions of the bill permits the printing of a phrase on every voter information card that states, ‘This card does not mean you are eligible to vote,’ which Webber alleges is chilling for formerly incarcerated individuals who have already paid their debt to society.
“The governor created a new Office of Election Crimes, and Security with the intent of investigating those people who may be voting without having fully received their voting rights back yet,” he said. “We think a better solution is a statewide database so that formerly incarcerated people can easily check their eligibility without fear of voting illegally.”
The new law also requires third-party voter registration organizations to reregister anew every single election cycle, prohibits prefilled information on registration applications, and increases the total aggregate fine that an organization can be assessed from $50,000 to $250,000 a year.
"This 98-page bill came out of nowhere more than halfway through the legislative session when most bills are filed by the first day of the session," Webber added. "We were able to read it on a Monday at about 2:00 PM and then we all had to show up in committee 24 hours later. Legislators had to vote on this bill, assess the bill, read the bill, and make comments on the bill in less than 24 hours. So, from the start, the whole process for this bill was flawed."