Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Bill Creating Election Police Task Force

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday establishing a new, first-of-its-kind election police task force to investigate voter fraud allegations as well as other election violations or irregularities.

The bill, Senate Bill 524, creates the Office of Election Crimes and Security under the direction of the Department of State. The new agency will be tasked with conducting preliminary investigations into accusations of voter fraud and other election law violations as well as submitting an annual report to the state outlining each allegation.

“At the end of the day, we want to be in a situation where everyone knows the rules,” DeSantis said at a news conference before signing the bill. “I think this office will be much appreciated and will allow us to have people who really specialize in election security and election integrity.”

The bill also increased the penalty for what DeSantis called ballot harvesting from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony. In the bill, ballot harvesting refers to distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, delivering or possessing more than two mail-in ballots in an election that do not belong to an immediate family member.

Senate Bill 524 also removes every reference of ballot drop boxes in the Florida Statute, replacing the phrase with secure ballot intake station, continuing a trend of lawmakers from several states attempting to roll back voting measures implemented in the 2020 election.

DeSantis, who is running for reelection and is widely considered to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has both praised the last election as smooth and suggested more rules were needed to deter fraud, underscoring Trump’s lingering influence on Republican policymaking. Critics have deemed the law politically motivated and unnecessary, arguing that local prosecutors can handle election crimes.

Voter fraud is rare, typically occurs in isolated instances and is generally detected. An Associated Press investigation of the 2020 presidential election found fewer than 475 potential cases of voter fraud out of 25.5 million ballots cast in the six states where Trump and his allies disputed his loss to President Joe Biden.

 

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