Sunshine Sentinel

Major provisions of Florida’s election laws, including new voter integrity ones signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this month, would be invalidated under federal legislation that House Democrats approved in March.

Florida’s voting law, for instance, requires that voters be notified by the county election supervisor if their ballot is rejected due to signatures not matching. The voter is then given until 5 p.m. on the second day after the election to fix their ballot.

H.R. 1, which would supersede state election laws if it becomes law, will give states the option to dismiss with verifying signatures on absentee or mail-in ballots all together. If the state chooses to verify, then the process resorts to a highly partisan one, according to former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli.

“H.R. 1 puts forth a new standard. In order to reject a ballot based on an unverifiable or incorrect signature, both judges would have to agree that the signature on the ballot is questionable,” Cuccinelli wrote in RealClearPolitics. “Since the standard operating procedure in most localities is that two judges be present, H.R. 1 essentially states that the authorization of only one judge is needed to approve signatures, regardless of how they compare with the signatures on file."

He continued: ”This failure of election mechanics opens the door to a partisan veto built into the process. H.R. 1 would devastate the effectiveness of signature verification, as regardless of any issues with signatures – no matter how clear or evident – either party could choose to verify any amount of dubious signatures.”

H.R. 1 will also allow voters to verify questionable signatures through a simple phone call – with no documented proof required.

The federal legislation would also invalidate a provision in the updated Florida law that that requires voters to verify their identity with a valid ID, which could include a Social Security number, when requesting an absentee ballot.

States couldn’t require voter ID under H.R. 1 and prospective voters who don’t produce an ID could simply state in writing that they are eligible to vote. 

Voter-identification laws were recommended by the 2005 Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and James Baker, secretary of state under Republican President George H. W. Bush.