Lawmakers react to DeSantis signing controversial Florida voting bill May 6, 2021 at 12:11 PM EDT - Updated May 6 at 12:36 PM
Republicans, Democrats and other organizations are sounding off following the
signing Thursday of Florida s new controversial election law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in West Palm Beach.
The legislation was signed into law
behind closed doors at the Hilton hotel near the Palm Beach International Airport with Fox News being the only media outlet allowed to attend.
The law has been denounced by Democrats and voter rights advocates, saying it will unfairly target minority groups and create barriers for people to cast their ballot. However, Republicans say the new law increases integrity & transparency in Florida s voting laws.
It usually takes a few days after session’s close to figure out what happened in the last days of the Florida Legislature. The proceedings closed Friday, so it’s time to take stock of what happened.
The good news is that legislators passed a $101.5 billion state budget on time. This was thanks to an economic recovery that kicked in just in time and an infusion of federal money.
The bad news was that this was the Culture Wars Session of the Legislature, which meant all kinds of mostly symbolic measures were filed and fought over. Some will graduate from being grandstanding bills to being baffling laws whose repeal will require the efforts of future sessions. Has your life been improved in any way by knowledge that transgender school athletes now will banned from school sports?
TALLAHASSEE Lawmakers during this year’s legislative session eliminated grants that help students at some private colleges pay tuition and got rid of an annual textbook stipend for Bright Futures scholarship recipients but stopped short of upending the way the $650 million Bright Futures program is funded.
Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, in February filed a proposal (SB 86) aimed at cutting Bright Futures aid for students in degree fields deemed by higher-education governing boards as unlikely to lead to employment.
The legislation quickly sparked a public outcry led by a group, known as “Save Bright Futures,” made up primarily of prospective college students.
Legislation that establishes new rules for the way elections are conducted in Florida has been passed by the State Legislature and is headed to the Governor s desk to be signed into law. Meanwhile, Hernando County Supervisor of Elections Shirley Anderson said her office is prepared to comply with what the measure requires.
In February, Gov. Ron DeSantis told supporters in West Palm Beach he would champion measures that would boost election transparency and ballot integrity by among other things disallowing so-called “ballot harvesting,” and requiring real-time reporting of voter turnout data at the precinct level.
Subsequently, SB 90 introduced by State Sen. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) and companion legislation filed in the House of Representatives by State Rep Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) laid down rules intended to increase ballot integrity.