Florida lawmakers are poised to pass voting law changes after being mocked for long lines and delayed results during the 2012 presidential election.
But in the waning days of the legislative session, Senate Democrats are criticizing the plan as not going far enough to address the problems at the polls last year.
“This bill mandates only two things that will address concerns from the last election,” wrote Sen. Chris Smith, the Senate Democratic leader from Fort Lauderdale, in a column in the Sun-Sentinel April 21. “It allows persons to correct an absentee ballot if they did not sign it and requires an extra two hours a day for early voting. Everything else in this bill is discretionary. Under SB 600, Broward, Dade, Palm Beach, Duval, Orange, Hillsborough, Jackson, Franklin, Dixie and all the rest of our 67 counties can do exactly what they did in 2012, with the exception of just two more hours per day for early voting. Nothing else is mandated. Nothing else is changed.”
The column left readers with the impression that the bill changed little for the better. Smith called it “an opportunity lost.”
Democrats and Republicans are split on some provisions of the bill, so there are varying perspectives as to what “concerns” came up after the last election. We wanted to fact-check Smith’s claim that the election bill “allows persons to correct an absentee ballot if they did not sign it and requires an extra two hours a day for early voting. Everything else in this bill is discretionary.”