TALHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) – In an ongoing effort to secure Florida elections, Republican lawmakers are now trying to bolster the process of verifying voter eligibility by adding additional requirements for Floridians.
The bill’s sponsors say he wants to close current loopholes in the process and prevent future voter fraud.
The Republicans behind this effort say that this is not the time to remain in our glory, and that this bill will only continue to secure our elections. But Democrats argue that the bill will only drive voters away.
St. Petersburg’s state representative, Bernie Jack, says he wants to strengthen public confidence in the state’s election system.
“We have been leading the nation in reform. It’s not time to remain glorious. We have to keep ensuring elections to ensure there are no gaps in the system, especially when it comes to non-citizen voting in elections. We have to make sure it never happens in Florida.”
After the 2020 election, the Florida Legislature enacted election integrity reform. Representative Jack adds that his efforts in this law are now a continuation of that fight.
“You cannot have a sovereign nation when you have something to compromise the integrity of our election, and therefore this is a continuation of that fight,” Jack said.
House Bill 831 is attempting to add measures to verify citizenship during the voter registration process, remove people who do not live in the state, and add metrics such as driver’s licenses and non-citizen’s IDs.
“This bill adds additional measures to verify citizenship in advance during the registration process to ensure that those registered in our election are actually citizens, with quarterly audits being taken, those who do not live in our state or may have moved will be removed from our role, and those who do not live in our state, those who are not discharged from hospital, some of them will be discharged from hospital, and the voter role will also be removed,” Jack said.
That means Democrats opposed to the bill say the additions will only drive voters away.
“They made it seem like we have this massive scam. You’re voting somewhere else, people who have died vote, this is all a bunch of stupidity. So, for me, this is trying to embrace more obstacles for people.
The law has been introduced, but it has not yet been required to vote. Representative Jack says he believes the bill is not yet required to vote due to the number of election bills that have submitted the session, and hopes his colleagues will recognize the importance of his efforts.
“This is worth pursuing because election integrity is paramount,” Jack said.
