Voting with mail-in ballots through drop-off sites across the state could be restricted, in a bill drafted by the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee.
The 38-page bill, reports Steve Bousquet of the Tampa Bay Times, includes language limiting the use of drop-off locations, which have been popular for elections in Pinellas and a number of Florida counties.
It is not the first time that Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark have been at odds over absentee ballots. In December, Secretary of State Ken Detzner clashed with Clark over an announcement on remote ballot locations, with Detzner suggesting Florida law has not authorized such sites.
Clark chose to ignore the notice, Bousquet writes, and she used three tax collector sites and county library branches for drop-offs in the Pinellas County 13th Congressional District race. She has employed the same process of satellite ballot locations since 2006.
The Senate bill under consideration (SPB 7068) will call for absentee ballots returned only to authorized sites — main or branch SOE offices, early voting polling rooms or election boxes at post offices — defined as “a permanent facility of the supervisor and staffed by one or more permanent, full-time employees of the supervisor.”
In addition, the bill also requires Florida to create a “secure Internet website” for voter registration by July 2015.
Sen. Jack Latvala chairs Ethics and Elections; committee staff was responsible for drafting the bill language.
