Topline
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill Monday that will create a state police force to investigate voter fraud and other election crimes, as Republicans nationwide fixate on voter fraud following former President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Thursday, … [+]
Key Facts
Led by officers appointed by DeSantis, the “Office of Election Crimes and Security” will conduct investigations of alleged voter fraud independent of local prosecutors, whom DeSantis says may lack the expertise or resources needed to look into voter fraud.
The plan will cost $3.7 million, said state Rep. Daniel Perez (R), one of the bill’s sponsors, according to CNN.
The bill also increases the punishment for ballot-harvesting and requires election officials to conduct more frequent maintenance of voter lists.
Florida’s Senate passed the bill on March 4, and the state House approved it five days later.
Key Background
Republicans in numerous states have made election law a key priority over the last year, a trend driven partly by Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election loss was driven by widespread vote-rigging. Though Trump won Florida in 2020, a contest DeSantis called “the best-run election in this state [we’ve] probably ever had,” the fervently pro-Trump governor has avoided commenting on whether he believed the election was rigged in favor of President Joe Biden. DeSantis is one of several Republican officials to propose more stringent investigations into voter fraud—which researchers say is vanishingly rare—as part of a broad push to emphasize “election integrity.” Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, a former senator who lost his seat to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) last year and is now challenging incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R), said in January he would create an election law division in the state to investigate such crimes and “arrest those who commit these offenses.” Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers (R) also proposed a bill to establish a “bureau of elections” with the power to investigate voter fraud claims in her state last year.
Big Number
75. That’s how many claims of voter fraud Florida’s Department of State referred to law enforcement or prosecuting authorities in 2020, compared to more than 11 million votes cast in the 2020 election. Last year, the non-profit MITRE Corporation analyzed the 2020 presidential election results in eight battleground states, including Florida, and found there was “no evidence of fraud, manipulation, or uncorrected error” in the election.
Chief Critic
Zeeshan Aleem, an opinion columnist at MSNBC, deemed the concept of a dedicated election police force a “scare tactic” and a waste of taxpayer money.
What To Watch For
If Trump chooses not to seek the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis could be a top contender. A poll of attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February found DeSantis was the preferred 2024 candidate if Trump doesn’t run, receiving 28% of the vote, though he fell far behind the former president, who garnered 59% of the vote, according to CBS.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/2022/04/25/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-to-form-election-police-force/