Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker is asking attorneys to file briefs about the potential effects of recently passed SB 524 on an existing lawsuit regarding last year’s SB 90 on election integrity. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has yet to sign SB 524 but it will make further changes to Florida’s elections process.
“Yet no lawyer for any party has alerted the court of imminent changes to the laws at issue before this court — though the parties appeared to have been actively monitoring the latest election legislation as it moved through the Florida Legislature these past several weeks,” Walker wrote. “Accordingly, the parties must file on or before (5 p.m.), Wednesday, March 23, 2022, an expedited supplemental brief addressing what impact, if any, Florida’s Senate Bill 524 would have on the challenged provisions and claims before this court in the event the governor signs the legislation into law.”
The bill would establish an Office of Election Crimes and Security” under the Florida Department of State. This proposed office would have 15 people and would field complaints of voter fraud. It would also increase penalties for organizations that violate election laws.
DeSantis was the original impetus for the bill as he requested the legislation to be taken up. The bill was passed largely upon party lines, with few crossover votes.
SB 90 was a bill passed last year that has garnered national attention and high-profile lawsuits. The federal trial for the constitutionality of SB 90 began last month. The Florida law also implemented numerous election integrity measures like limiting ballot drop box access to early voting hours, banned the submission of two or more vote-by-mail ballots during an election, and required vote-by-mail requests to be done every election cycle.
A number of voter fraud probes were just announced this week as complaints were filed in Gainesville regarding cross tabulating voter lists with registered sex offenders and ineligible voters in the Alachua County jail.
Multiple supervisors of elections have come out and said that SB 90 was not necessary, others were uncertain about it.
Since both bills relate to election integrity, Walker’s reasoning for asking for more information is to see if, legally, the new bill would impact the existing SB 90 lawsuit.
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
Photo “Poll Worker” by Phil Roeder. CC BY 2.0.
