03/11/2021
There is a bill in the Florida Legislature that will ban drop boxes and prevent everyone from dropping off their vote-by-mail ballot to their Supervisor of Elections. This amounts to massive voter suppression and will disproportionately impact working families and people with disabilities who have trouble getting to the polls. Some voters distrust institutions, like the postal service, and prefer to deliver their ballot directly. Once a Supervisor of Elections receives a ballot, there is no difference in how we verify that ballot. Whether it comes in the mail or is deposited in a drop box, the signature has to match either way. Drop boxes have been effective at expanding access to the polls and there isn’t a single good reason to take them away now.
Republicans who control Florida government are planning to make mail voting more difficult. Under bills moving through the Legislature, Florida voters would have to jump through more hoops and ballot drop boxes would be banned. And one election official calls it "massive voter suppression.”
