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Top lawmakers won't back near-total abortion ban or end to universal voting by mail
Orlando Sentinel - Gift LinkTALLAHASSEE — Florida’s House and Senate leaders are throwing cold water on headline-grabbing bills that would eliminate no-excuse mail voting and impose a near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest.
The proposals are unlikely to succeed during the 60-day session that started Tuesday without their support.
House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said they don’t want to significantly scale back mail-in voting or further restrict abortion.
“We have a lot of elderly people who like the vote-by-mail process,” said Passidomo, R-Naples.
A bill (SB 1752) by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, seeks to re-establish old absentee ballot rules. To vote by mail, Floridians would have to sign a certificate swearing they have a reason for voting absentee, such as an illness or disability, and face being charged with a felony if they lied about it.
Ingoglia, a former chairman of the Florida GOP, said that he thought it was “time to go back to basics” and casting an in-person ballot was the safest way of voting.
But Renner, R-Palm Coast, said he didn’t see a need to end no-excuse mail-in voting.
“I am not looking to recede from the easier-to-vote piece,” he said. “I would rather look at let’s just make sure we have got the controls in place to make sure it is still harder to cheat.”
The proposals are unlikely to succeed during the 60-day session that started Tuesday without their support.
House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said they don’t want to significantly scale back mail-in voting or further restrict abortion.
“We have a lot of elderly people who like the vote-by-mail process,” said Passidomo, R-Naples.
A bill (SB 1752) by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, seeks to re-establish old absentee ballot rules. To vote by mail, Floridians would have to sign a certificate swearing they have a reason for voting absentee, such as an illness or disability, and face being charged with a felony if they lied about it.
Ingoglia, a former chairman of the Florida GOP, said that he thought it was “time to go back to basics” and casting an in-person ballot was the safest way of voting.
But Renner, R-Palm Coast, said he didn’t see a need to end no-excuse mail-in voting.
“I am not looking to recede from the easier-to-vote piece,” he said. “I would rather look at let’s just make sure we have got the controls in place to make sure it is still harder to cheat.”