A bill filed to strictly limit access to mail ballots now faces a difficult path through the Legislature, after Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said she's opposed to the measure.
"I have a large number of elderly constituents," Passidomo, a Naples Republican, told reporters during the first day of the Regular Session. "My parents, who unfortunately recently passed away — they voted by mail. They were dyed-in-the-wool Republicans. They were not able to get in a car and drive to the polling place."
"We have a lot of elderly people who like the vote-by-mail process and they're more comfortable, they feel their vote was counted — it obviously was, the people they voted for won," Passidomo added.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican, filed the bill (SB 1752). As a House member, Ingoglia sponsored a bill in 2021 — in the wake of former President Donald Trump's bogus claims of widespread election fraud in 2020 — to restrict the use of drop boxes for mail ballots.
Later legislation banned the use of drop boxes entirely, and that provision was upheld in an appellate court ruling last year after a lower court initially knocked it down.
The new measure would require voters to request a mail ballot for every election and require them to show they won't be present on election day or are disabled on physically unable to get to the polls. Other provisions would ban vote-counting machines with software or hardware made or owned by a foreign entity, and require canvassing boards to conduct manual recounts of two randomly selected precincts open to the public before certifying the elections.
But according to Passidomo, the appetite for such a drastic limitation on mail ballots is thin, at least in the Senate.
"That is not what I'm hearing," Passidomo said when asked if she would use her leadership position to squash a bill that had widespread GOP support. "I think most members feel the vote-by-mail process is safe and secure."
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