Jacob Ogles
Proposed election changes in Florida prove polarizing among voters, according to a St. Pete Polls survey commissioned by Florida Politics.
The poll, taken March 22-24, found more than 58% of voters consider the changes to be a bad idea, and just 42% think it’s a good one.
Proposals include eliminating drop boxes for ballots and requiring voters to re-up requests for mail-in ballots with greater frequency.
Currently, mail-ballot requests last for two election cycles. Both the House and Senate elections bills would cut it to one cycle.
Unlike the Senate version (SB 90), carried by Ocala Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley, the House plan would keep ballot drop box legislation while adding monitoring requirements. Voting sites could only keep boxes available to the public during voting hours, and boxes must always be monitored, whether by Supervisor of Elections personnel, a law enforcement officer or a security camera.
Notably, the bulk of voters, however they feel about the proposal, feel that way strongly. About 32% of respondents to the survey say it’s a very good idea, compared to 9% who consider the reform bill somewhat good. Meanwhile, 46% consider the plan very bad, compared to 12% who view is as somewhat bad.
That leaves little room in the middle when it comes to changing an election system that political leaders on both sides say performed well in Florida in November.
But the changes came after President Donald Trump, who lost his reelection bid, spent months challenging the integrity of elections nationwide. He maintains Republican lawmakers didn’t fight hard enough against certificating election results in January. At that event, pro-Trump supporters rioted and stormed the Capitol.
But in the Sunshine State, Republicans remain the only group enthusiastic about tightening the ability to vote in Florida. Nearly 51% of Republican voters do consider the reforms proposed in the Legislature to be a very good idea, with another 12% considering the changes somewhat good.
But 66% of Democrats and 49% of independents call the proposals very bad, with another 12% of both those voter groups still calling the plans somewhat bad. Only 22% of Democrats see the shifts in procedure as a good idea.
But a plurality of voters in every media market in Florida with the exception of Panama City chose very bad as the best description for the proposals.
