Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed SB 90 into law. The bill, which addressed elections, has been derided as a “Jim Crow” tactic and characterized as voter suppression by political opponents. However, in 2012, a grand jury taking part in an election fraud case in Miami-Dade County provided a list of recommendations to lawmakers to crack down on absentee ballot-related voter fraud. A number of those grand jury recommendations were included in SB 90.
DeSantis has praised the bill saying Florida has some of the “strongest election integrity measures” in the country.
The Grand Jury Report
In the executive summary of the final report, the jury was shocked at the lack of accountability among absentee voting ballots during the 2012 Primary Election in Miami-Dade.
“In the aftermath of the August 14, 2012 Primary Election, Miami-Dade County was rocked with allegations of absentee ballot fraud that bombarded us daily in the media. The headlines of the breaking new coverage revealed gaping holes in the absentee ballot voting process in our community. As we discovered, each of those holes represented an opportunity for someone to commit fraud – undetected and in the shadows.”
The jury then provided the Florida Legislature with ten recommendations which included:
- … “reinstating the requirement that the signing of absentee ballots by electors require the signature of an attesting witness the signature of an attesting witness 18 years of age or older.”
- “In connection with the aforementioned recommendation” … “impose a requirement that the signature of the attesting witness will also be used to attest that in addition to witnessing the signing of the ballot by the elector, the witness also observed the elector mark or vote the ballot.”
- … “require that a person who provides assistance to an elector who needs assistance when voting an absentee ballot shall sign a declaration.”
- … “allow for the expansion of Early Voting Sites, especially in large counties like Miami-Dade, and to give the Supervisor of Elections discretion in choosing and determining the location and number of Early Voting sites to utilize in an election cycle.”
- … “eliminating the permanent absentee voter list and require that absentee voters who desire to vote by absentee ballot for a specific election request an absentee ballot for such election.”
- … “making it illegal for anyone to be in possession of more than two absentee ballots at one time, unless the ballots are those of the voter and members of the voter’s immediate family…”
One of the notable recommendations included in SB90 related to “ballot harvesting”, a practice where individuals can pick up several absentee ballots from voters. SB90 includes a provision which limits the number of ballots an individual may collect.
Also addressed in the bill were increased identification requirement associated with absentee ballots and the time requirement associated with a voter requesting an absentee ballot.
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and the Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Gov. Ron DeSantis” by Gage Skidmore CC 2.0.
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“However, in 2012, a grand jury taking part in an election fraud case in Miami-Dade County provided a list of recommendations to lawmakers to crack down on absentee ballot-related voter fraud.”
There was an accusation of voter fraud so a Grand Jury was convened… try to keep up Jerry.
Voting should NOT be as easy as the Democrats want it to be.
@Jerry,
Voter fraud is a criminal matter. The grand jury’s recommendations are solid and legal and protect the integrity of the voting process. I don’t understand why you would not want them, but you asked a good question and hopefully someone knows the answer to your question.
For those who think this is terrible, which recommendation do you disagree with and why?
Can anyone provide me with the exact Florida statue that gives a grand jury the authority to conduct the type investigation described here which is not a criminal matter?
wow they sure drank the kool aid. They fall for the old “divide and conquer” blame the other party, not the crook they put into office. Republican voters shoot themselves in the foot and come back for morer
I’m always amazing at the brazen audacity of the DemoKKKrat Party’s public declarations of the utter contempt and disdain they hold for “people of color”. Their Alynski Projection tactics – as supported by their Media PACs and big tech puppets of the CCP – are so astoundingly clear and present. Allow me to boil it down for those of us in communities “of color”…
The DemoKKKrat Party sees us as nothing more than tools of their trade. They believe that we are too stupid to follow directions or acquire a valid ID. It is the DemoKKKrat Party that has a strong history of, and continues with, unabashed racism against “people of color”. It is they that stifle us with generational entitlement and poverty in an effort to keep us on their plantation.
But they do recognize that more and more of us are waking up and pulling away from their tool chest of exploitation and hate. Which is why they are currently ignoring their Constitutional Duty, dismissing their Oath of Office, and committing Treason against these United States by calling for – and aiding and abetting – foreign agents (aka: illegal aliens) to violate our laws and invade our sovereign land with reckless abandon. To the DemoKKKrat Party, the illegal alien is the new pool of slaves to exploit and abuse for their political gain. So we communities “of color” make sure we get our vaccine… ‘cause that will help speed up the process of replacement.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/02/florida-county-officials-investigated-registering-jail-inmates-vote-2020/
Democrats use absentee ballots to cheat on the grand scale of fraud using accomplices and co-conspirators such as big Tech, the CCP, and big money and everyone knows it.
When they get caught cheating and we pushed back to make laws that require legal voting they cry voter suppression. There are a lot of people who are very wealthy who need to be in prison for voter fraud regarding the last election and we all know who they are.