SPRING HILL, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an election bill into law Monday at a sports bar in Spring Hill.
DeSantis signed SB 524, a bill that further tightens election laws and creates a state police to handle election crimes.
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Among the other things included in the legislation:
- Stops government agencies or officials from using donations for any type of election administration-related expense
- Increases penalties for people working for third-party voter registration groups who fail to turn in the applications within a 14-day time frame
- Requires county elections supervisors to conduct voter roll maintenance more frequently
- Increases penalties for “ballot harvesting”, the practice of groups collecting vote-by-mail ballots en masse and dropping them off at elections offices
- Prohibits the use of “ranked-choice” voting as an election method in any election in Florida
- Tightens the requirements for citizens initiatives
- Changed the name of ballot drop boxes to secure ballot intake stations
The new law is meant to expand on a sweeping election law passed last year. Late last month, a federal judge struck down portions of that law, accusing the Republican-majority Legislature of suppressing Black voters, and ordered that similar new laws must have court approval.
The DeSantis administration is appealing that ruling.