Lawmakers alter voting bill in response to suspicious party affiliation changes in Miami
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Deception at the Door
A team of Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald reporters interviewed 141 voters living in low-income housing complexes in Hialeah and Little Havana whose party affiliations were switched without their knowledge or consent. The investigation revealed most of them were switched by canvassers working for the Republican Party of Florida.
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State lawmakers are poised to enact stricter penalties for changing someone’s voter registration information without their knowledge, a reaction to the growing scandal being investigated by prosecutors in Miami-Dade County.
The latest changes to Senate Bill 524 add a $1,000 penalty for members of third-party voter registration organizations who are convicted of altering someone’s voter registration form without their consent.
The measure, added by a Republican, is in response to the unusual concentration of party affiliation switches in Miami-Dade County that some residents have said happened without their consent.
The bill sponsor, Sen. Travis Hutson, R-Elkton, said reporting on the scandal was “a great catch.”
“We do not want this happening,” he told the Herald/Times. “We’re going to address it.”
A Miami Herald investigation found that Republican Party of Florida canvassers visited eight apartment complexes in Miami-Dade County last year and changed more than 130 elderly Hispanic voters to Republicans without their consent. Many of the voters — largely low-income, first-generation immigrants — described being misled by the canvassers into signing forms that they thought were for new voter cards.
It is a felony under Florida law to willfully submit false voter registration information.
RPOF leaders said the party follows the law but that they would look into the allegations. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has launched a criminal inquiry.
Hutson said last week he wanted to enhance the penalties following a request by Sen. Annette Taddeo, D-Miami, who has been fielding calls from voters who have come forward alleging their voter registration was changed.
“I think some of the most egregious fraud would be switching somebody’s party without them knowing,” Hutson said.
Taddeo on Thursday said she was grateful Hutson included it.
“I’m glad that they have accepted that,” she said, but she noted that the legislation wouldn’t take effect until 2024.
“We have the problem going on right now,” she said.
Taddeo said she has referred other examples of potentially illegal registration-switching to the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson there confirmed the office was reviewing the documents Taddeo submitted.
Changes to satisfy elections supervisors
Senate Bill 524 now heads to the Senate floor for a vote. Its companion bill, House Bill 7061, does not yet include the change, but Hutson said he’s been working closely with the House sponsor, Rep. Danny Perez, R-Miami, to make the bills identical.
The legislation was requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been beating back calls from supporters of former President Donald Trump to audit Florida’s 2020 election, which went smoothly and which Trump won easily.
On Thursday, Hutson introduced a new version of the bill making concessions to elections supervisors. The bill now:
▪ Drops a plan to require people voting by mail to include the last four digits of their Social Security number or state-issued ID number, which elections supervisors were concerned about. Instead, it requires the secretary of state to come up with a plan by next year to adopt such a system.
▪ Requires elections supervisors to conduct voter list maintenance annually instead of every two years.
▪ Creates an Office of Election Crimes and Security in the Department of State and assigns state police to assist the office’s investigators.
Democrats, including Taddeo, have said the office is a waste of money that will make it harder for Floridians to vote.
“They keep passing these bills to suppress voters, to make it more difficult for voters,” Taddeo said, adding that making it less convenient to vote disproportionately affects Black and brown voters who might not have the time or means of transportation to get to voting sites.
Those who feel there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election said Thursday that they want the bill to go further than it does.
“I know we’re being told that Florida is safe and it’s the gold standard,” said Jacquelyn Dabney of Walton County. “We’re not convinced.”
This story was updated Friday, Feb, 25, to include information about a Herald investigation into the changes of voter registration information in Miami-Dade County.
Miami Herald reporter Nicholas Nehamas contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 5:55 PM.