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Ron DeSantis signed legislation regarding voting laws now requiring Photo ID to vote and closes the door on private funding for local elections, according to Fox News.
“No agency or state or local official responsible for conducting elections, including, but not limited to, a supervisor of elections, may solicit, accept, use, or dispose of any donation in the form of money, grants, property, or personal services from an individual or a nongovernmental entity for the purpose of funding election-related expenses or voter education, voter outreach, or registration programs.”
“We will not use or dispose of any unspent funds now that the law is in effect,” Robert Rodriguez stated.
“The unspent funds will be returned.”
Tarren Bragdon said, “The Florida Legislature prohibited third party funding of local government election offices for one simple reason: to restore Florida voters’ trust in the integrity of the election process.”
“The governor and legislature have made protecting elections a top priority, and I applaud their efforts to make Florida the most accessible, transparent, and efficient election system in the country.”
“Private funding is used to supplement a variety of government services where there are funding shortfalls, including schools and libraries.”
“We hope that as states consider the issue of private funding, they solve the real long-standing problem, which is making sure that election departments are fully funded so they are able to deliver a professional, inclusive, secure voting process for all of their voters.”
From Fox News:
For at least two Florida counties, the new voting law means losing millions in private grant money bankrolled mostly by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and closing the spigot for more private dollars to fund election administration.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill Thursday that includes provisions such as adding voter ID requirements to absentee voting and limiting ballot harvesting. The law also outright bans private money from being used to pay for local elections.
The Zuckerberg-financed Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) gave almost $400 million to election jurisdictions across the United States, asserting it was to assist election offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Republicans countered the money disproportionately went to turn out the vote in heavily blue areas of the country. The CTCL money went to 49 states across 2,500 jurisdictions for election administration to pay for additional polling places, ballot drop boxes, “voter education” and other matters.
Officials from Palm Beach County – which got $6.8 million in CTCL grants—and Miami-Dade County—which got $2.4 million—told Fox News last week the leftover funds would be used to pay for future elections.
Miami-Dade, which did not get the grant money until Oct. 15, did not spend any of it for the 2020 election.
The money was going to be spent mostly on additional election equipment, Rodriguez said.
— Advertisement — The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based government watchdog, that has researched how the Zuckerberg-funded grants were used, praised the legislation for blocking all private funds going to election administration.
