On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in a case that impacts Florida’s election reforms. The ruling supports a new set of voting reform laws signed by Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. In their decision, SCOTUS signaled support for measures taken by states like Florida in their attempt to clamp down on election and voter fraud.
The Florida Legislature, lead by Republicans, passed an election reform bill and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed it into law on May 6. The bill sets in place new requirements for ballot drop boxes and mail-in voting.
Florida Republicans based the legislation on 2012 grand jury recommendations in a voter fraud case out of Miami-Dade County, as well as election fraud cases found to take place during the 2020 presidential election.
The new law faced a flurry of immediate lawsuits from civil rights groups claiming it is discriminatory towards minorities and is a form of voter suppression.
However, CNN Supreme Court analyst, Steve Vladeck, said election integrity laws, like Florida’s, would likely survive after SCOTUS’ ruling.
“Although lower courts will have to sort through exactly how much harder today’s ruling will make it to challenge voting restrictions, the one undeniable point is that more of the post-2020 state restrictions will survive under today’s ruling than would have before today,” said Vladeck.
In light of the lawsuits facing Florida’s reforms, national Republican groups are joining the fight to defend Florida’s law. Florida Sen. Rick Scott also offered his support for election integrity and went on to say the mainstream media is deceiving Floridians.
“The lawsuits being pushed by radical leftists in Florida have no basis in fact,” Scott said in a statement. “They are part of the Democrats’ Big Lie — that any efforts to secure the integrity of our elections is racist. That is a lie and the NRSC is proud to stand with the RNC in my home state to defend this commonsense law and fight back against the Democrats’ lies.”
DeSantis said he believes Florida will continue to have transparency it its elections, and the new law takes even further steps to ensure integrity.
“Right now I have what we think is the strongest election integrity measures in the country,” said DeSantis in a television interview. “We’re proud of the strides that we’ve made. We’re not resting on our laurels. And me signing this bill here says, ‘Florida, your vote counts, your vote is going to be cast with integrity and transparency.’”
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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 “People Voting” by Wyofile Wyofile. CC BY 2.0.
