Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law SB 90, a commonsense law that seeks to strike the perfect balance between making it easy to vote, yet hard to cheat.
As expected, before the ink on the law had a chance to dry, the same Democratic-Party aligned law firm that filed lawsuits against election integrity bills in Georgia, Iowa, and Montana filed yet another suit, this time in Florida. Allegations of voter suppression frothed from the mouth of political pundits on television and the professional outrage machine swung into full action.
Despite this mobilization, there is no controversy here worthy of outrage. In passing this law, Florida’s legislature has provided a set of fair and consistent rules that promote free, fair, and transparent elections—a constitutional right for their citizens.
One reform in the new Florida law bans ballot harvesting, a shady practice where political operatives gather stacks of absentee ballots from vulnerable voters at places like nursing homes or long-term care facilities and turn them in. Since the groups and individuals that harvest ballots are generally highly partisan, legitimate concerns exist that they might tamper with ballots or otherwise exert improper influence over voters as they fill them out.
The law also follows the national trend of ending the funneling of private money directly to local election officials in order to fund get-out-the-vote efforts for the Left. These kinds of schemes, most notably, “Zuckerbucks,” raised serious concerns during the 2020 election.
National reports, led by the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA), recently shed light on the Zuckerbucks scheme. It was revealed that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg funneled more than $350 million through a non-profit corporation, run by Democrat party operatives, to influence and impact elections across the country in 2020 under the guise of helping communities with the unique challenges of COVID-19. In Florida alone, more than $7 million was spent without any transparency or accountability to state policymakers.
Floridians know best how to run their own elections, and since 2000 have grown to be one of the best-run state elections systems in the country. Thanks to Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature, Florida now has additional protections to prevent the undue influence of Mr. Zuckerberg and other out-of-state billionaires from undermining what is working.
Another commonsense measure included in the new law is a prohibition on indiscriminately mailing absentee ballots across the state. Instead, the legislature settled on a simple and fair way to ensure absentee ballots make it into the right hands: To receive an absentee ballot, you must request one. Simple, fair, and commonsense.
The law also protects the integrity of drop boxes while requiring that they be placed geographically in a manner that ensures, as practicably as possible, that everyone who wishes to utilize them can.
The latest lawsuit seeks to stop the new law by alleging a myriad of constitutional violations that are not worth the paper they’re written on. In fact, the lead attorney and his law firm were recently sanctioned in Texas by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for submitting redundant and misleading filings with the court.
While unsurprising that Democratic party lawyers are continuing the assault on election integrity reforms, it is the first time they are so openly supporting interference in elections by billionaires from out of state.
Despite the frivolous lawsuits, the assault on election integrity will undoubtedly fail. Let’s hope that the out-of-state techno-tyrants and D.C. law firms get the message: Governor DeSantis and Florida will fight to make it easy to vote, and hard to cheat.
Chase Martin is the Legal Affairs Director at the Naples, Florida based non-profit the Foundation for Government Accountability. He currently lives in Naples, Florida.
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