https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/americandemocracyminute/episodes/2022-05-01T07_44_23-07_00

You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.

We’re headed to Florida, land of sunshine, alligators and Governor Ron Desantis, who last week signed SB 524 into law, another in a string of voter suppression laws using unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud as a pretext.

SB 524 creates the Office of Election Crimes and Security which will work with Florida State Police to investigate and prosecute allegations of voter fraud.  The so-called “election police” are viewed by pro-voter organizations as an intimidation tactic, particularly among black and brown populations where relations are already strained.

Another provision in the law makes third parties like churches and nonprofits criminally liable if they make mistakes on voter registration efforts.  Discouraging such drives again targets poorer communities, and majority-minority communities.  The law also  prohibits one person from returning more than two mail-in ballots, in a state with the country’s oldest population.   So it will be against the law to return your disabled neighbors’ ballots. 

And the increasingly popular ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank their candidates in order of preference without throwing a vote away, is now banned by the new law.

For more information on SB 524 and its impact, visit the League of Women Voters Florida’s website, linked from AmericanDemocracy Minute.org.

Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it’s something we DO.”

For the American Democracy Minute, I’m Brian Beihl.