Peter Schorsch
Florida Republicans are trying to make it harder for Floridians to vote-by-mail by limiting access to ballot drop boxes, among other proposals.
Then on Tuesday, they plopped in another doozy, one that would allow only immediate family members to pick up vote-by-mail ballots instead of allowing a broader “designee.”
The proposal, a proposed committee substitute on Sen. Dennis Baxley’s vote-by-mail bill (SB 90), would directly affect Florida’s most famous Republican from voting the way he likes to vote. That would be one former President and now-Florida Man Donald Trump.
The Republican-backed bill, which would also require voters to request a VBM ballot every election cycle, rather than every other, already has Democrats critics raising eyebrows. Republicans in the state lauded Florida’s 2020 election performance for lacking problems seen in other states, processing ballots quickly, and avoiding any claims of vote harvesting, raising the question: Why fix what even they say isn’t broken?
Now, an amendment would block even Trump from casting a ballot the same way he did for himself in 2020 — by allowing a designee to pick up and drop off his ballot.
The Palm Beach Post reported Tuesday that Trump requested a mail ballot Friday to vote in Palm Beach’s municipal elections. His request came nearly a week after the deadline to have a ballot mailed and just days before the deadline for voters to request a ballot and have it picked up.
More than likely, as the Post reported, Trump had an associate pick the ballot up, which is what he did in Florida’s Primary Election last August and the Presidential Preference Primary last March.
If Baxley’s bill, under the proposed committee substitute, were to clear the Legislature this Session and get Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature, Trump wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.
The GOP-backed measure, which Democrats critics dub voter suppression, is literally disenfranchising the most prominent Republican in the nation.
Just stew on that a moment.
