Associated Press
Restrictions on after-hour drop boxes may make it inconvenient to return ballots outside business hours, but they don’t keep Floridians from voting, a federal judge has ruled.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker previously had ruled that restrictions in Florida’s 2021 election law would have suppressed Black voters, but parts of that decision were overturned by an appellate court and sent back to the Tallahassee Judge to reconsider. Walker made his latest ruling last Thursday.
Often sounding conflicted about how to respond to the appellate court decision, Walker said in his latest ruling that the voting rights groups that had challenged Florida’s election law failed to show that the restrictions on drop boxes unduly burdened voters. The Judge also said that restrictions in the law on third-party voter registration groups also failed to be proven unduly burdensome.
Florida’s Republican-led Legislature joined several others around the country in passing election reforms after Republican former President Donald Trump made unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Democrats have called such reforms a partisan attempt to keep some voters from the ballot box.
Florida’s election law tightened rules on mailed ballots, drop boxes and other popular election methods. The changes made it more difficult for Black voters who, overall, have more socioeconomic disadvantages than white voters, Walker wrote in his original March 2022 ruling.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said last April that Walker’s ruling was flawed and that evidence did not show that lawmakers deliberately targeted Black voters.
Drop boxes are considered by many election officials to be safe and secure and have been used to varying degrees by states across the political spectrum with few problems. A survey by The Associated Press of state election officials across the United States found no cases of fraud, vandalism or theft related to drop boxes in the 2020 Presidential Election that could have affected the results.
In many cases, drop boxes are placed in locations where they can be monitored by election staff or security cameras. Local election offices typically have procedures to ensure the security of the ballots from the time they are retrieved until they arrive at the election office.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
6 comments
Dont Say FLA
February 13, 2024 at 2:38 pm
Florida has infinite amounts of money for voter fraud witch hunts, but can’t afford to keep ballot drop boxes open. Mmm hmm.
Hanging Chad
February 13, 2024 at 3:02 pm
You “Hanging Chad” Democrats crack me up. Florida opens its electronic voting very early where you can go to any precinct and cast your ballot. Make Election Day a National holiday where everyone has the opportunity to vote if the couldn’t get around to it earlier. Mail in ballots are ripe with fraud and harvesting. We all saw that in 2020. No way “Basement Biden” generated more voter excitement than Obama. No way!
Dont Say FLA
February 14, 2024 at 7:34 am
National voting holiday sounds great, but wouldn’t most Americans just squander the day like any other holiday?
Early voting is great. Mail-in ballots are critical. How else are fine Americans deployed around the world serving our country supposed to vote?
Chad, please, describe a scenario where the MAGAs would admit “Yep, Trump lost.'” How many court cases would it take? 80’s not enough, apparently. How many billions of dollars in settlements? $800 million isn’t enough, apparently, but more to come. How many indictments? Eh, 91 so far. Those aren’t yet convictions but given Trump’s attorneys rate of victory they all 91 have a very strong shot at becoming convictions. What would it take, Chad? What would it take?
If people can’t consider the possibility their candidate lost, you gotta ask, why not? What’s all up in their head that makes people think their candidate cannot and did not lose an election despite overwhelming evidence of exactly that?
Two cents on “why not:” Conspiracy and Paranoia.
Anyone who fully believes their candidate cannot have lose and cannot lose again, please turn off your chosen media for 3 weeks. Doesn’t matter if you consume some other media or just sit on the couch and eat bon bons. Just unplug yourself and see if that doesn’t turn your light bulb on.
Hung Wiil
February 14, 2024 at 6:02 pm
A national holiday for voting sounds like a stupid idea, and one Crist proposed in his spectacular run for Governor in 2022. There is early voting, absentee voting, voting day voting, we need less voting, not more. Voter turnout has been the most in 100 years since 2018, and the world is a war, in conflict, in economic turmoil, and used to outrageous inflation. Immigration crisis, climate crisis, health care crisis, mental health crisis, social media crisis, which give rise the suicide crisis. Way to go, geniuses. You The People deserve all that is coming.
Dont Say FLA
February 16, 2024 at 1:08 pm
Did not realize it had been 100 years since 2018. Seems like that was just 5 or 6 years ago. Regardless, voter turnout is higher by head count than it’s every been with every Presidential election. That’s due exclusively to an increasing population.
The winner of each Presidential election can brag they got more votes than anybody in all of history. The loser can usually say the same (since the winner is present day, not historical)
Both the winner and the loser could be more honest about it and say “The USA population’s bigger than ever, so there were more voters than ever”
The interesting number would be the percentage of eligible voters that vote.
So, the population increasing, that is not an argument for or against anything at all other than needing more water and food .
Hung Wiil
February 14, 2024 at 5:56 pm
No way!! Well, shoot sheriff, the case is settled.
Brilliant, Chad.
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