Florida: Joint House resolution would restore felon voting rights after three years | Florida Politics

A new joint resolution in the House would allow felons the right to vote in Florida three years after their sentence is up. The resolution by Rep. Al Jacquet of West Palm Beach would, if passed on the next general election (or a special election specifically for this) ballot, amend the statutes on voting to extend the right to felons. A previous resolution failed to even make it on the ballot in 2016 due to not getting the required number of signatures in time by Florida Rights Coalition President Desmond Meade, who spearheaded the movement to do so.

Florida: Trump’s voter fraud claims spark backlash in Florida | Tampa Bay Times

President Donald Trump's unfounded claims that millions of people voted illegally in November brought a torrent of criticism Wednesday from Florida elections experts and legislators, who demanded a federal investigation they say will prove Trump wrong. On his sixth day in office, Trump took to Twitter to say he will seek a "major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, including those registered to vote in two states, those who are illegal and even those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)." At least three in Trump's inner circle fit his description of voter fraud. His chief campaign strategist, Stephen Bannon, was registered in New York and Florida until Wednesday. His nominee to run the Treasury department, Steven Mnuchin, is registered to vote in New York and California, CNN reported. And his own daughter, Tiffany Trump, has been registered to vote in two states, New York and Pennsylvania. Florida Democrats pounced. In a letter sent Wednesday to Gov. Rick Scott's top elections official, Senate Democratic leader Oscar Braynon urged a state investigation of voter fraud "in the interests of reassuring the citizens of this state and Mr. Trump that his election to the presidency was beyond reproach."

Florida: Does Stephen Bannon live in Sarasota County? Because he’s registered to vote here | Herald Tribune

One of the most powerful men in America happens to be a resident of Sarasota County. We think. His name is Stephen K. Bannon, the scruffy-faced senior adviser to our new president. Maybe you've heard of him. But has anyone actually seen him? In particular, has anyone ever seen him at 3108 Casey Key Road, though probably not asking neighbor Stephen King to borrow a cup of sugar, considering King once wrote on Twitter: "My newest horror story. Once upon a time there was a man named Donald Trump and he ran for president.'' Anyway, this is where Bannon lives, or is supposed to live, still, according to the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office. It's the address listed on his voter registration form, effective Aug. 25. There is only problem: Bannon is also registered to vote in New York City, listing a home address on West 40th Street, and according to a spokesman for the New York State Board of Elections, he voted there in November by absentee ballot. That means he voted in New York while still registered in Sarasota County, where he did not vote. His voting status in both places remains active, records show.

Florida: Senate bill seeks expedited hearings for district map changes | Florida Politics

A bill filed Thursday in the Florida Senate would fast-track court rulings in challenges to electoral district boundaries, while requiring current boundaries to be used if the ruling isn’t rendered in a timely fashion. Senate Bill 352, filed by Elkton Republican Travis Hutson, seeks to resolve uncertainty among candidates and voters alike – a utilitarian measure in the light of high-profile recent challenges to Florida Senate boundaries as well as to those of the United States House of Representatives. Challenges to boundaries in legislative races must be given an expedited hearing, according to the bill.

Florida: Ion Sancho, the voters’ advocate, steps down | Tallahassee Democrat

While Dave Jacobsen’s introduction hung in the air, more than 60 people rose to their feet for a standing ovation for Ion Sancho. Jacobsen had said the Leon County Elections Supervisor will be long remembered for his efforts to make voting easier and the ability to run a problem-free election. Sancho's term as supervisor ends Tuesday. While Sancho was not available for comment for this story because his wife passed away on Wednesday, his decades-long career speaks for itself. Back in May 2016, Sancho beamed as he walked to the lectern at the Leon County Public Library. He wore an American flag bow tie. He’s an internationally-recognized elections experts and was featured in an HBO documentary 10 years ago. “The most basic civil right, no other right stands if you don’t get to vote for who represents you in government,” he said earlier when asked what he was going to talk about. Sancho has been strumming the same chord for 30 years — leafing through notebooks and recordings of radio, television or newspaper interviews the song remains the same. On this particular afternoon in May the chorus he wrote for the mix of retirees, downtown office workers, and university students was a ditty about career politicians and their bureaucratic henchmen attacking democracy’s foundation — fair, transparent elections.

Florida: Effort to restore voting rights to Florida felons moves forward | Sun Sentinel

The new year could mark a major milestone toward hundreds of thousands of Floridians regaining the right to vote. The Florida Supreme Court in March will hear arguments on a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow felons — except murderers and sex offenders — to have their voting rights restored after they complete prison and probation. Just over 6 million felons in the United States are unable to vote, according to The Sentencing Project, a prison reform group. About 1.7 million of them live in Florida, which amounts to more than 10 percent of the state’s voting population.

Florida: Vote registration fraud investigation could be underway | Florida Record

The Miami-Dade Office of the State's Attorney would neither confirm nor deny whether there is an open investigation into alleged voter fraud in Doral during the November general election. NBC 6 reported about 20 people are under investigation for allegedly using an office building in Doral as their voter registration address. County election officials say voters must live at the addresses they list on their registrations. Those who provide addresses for places where they don’t live are in violation of state law. County election officials referred all questions related to the alleged investigation to the state attorney’s office. “We can never confirm or deny the existence of any investigation,” Lissette Valdes-Valle, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney office, told the Florida Record.

Florida: State ‘radically out-of-step’ in denying felons right to vote, report says | Miami Herald

A new report from the Brennan Center for Justice takes Florida to task for its law denying voting rights to felons unless they successfully navigate an arduous and lengthy process to get those rights back. The Brennan Center calls Florida’s law “radically out of step with policies around the rest of the country” and “one of the harshest laws in the nation.” The law needs to be replaced,the report said. According to the report, released this month, 1.6 million Floridians are denied voting rights because of the state law. Those residents represent more than 10 percent of the state’s voting-age population. A disproportionate number, nearly one-third, are black. “Florida’s criminal disenfranchisement law is rooted in some of our country’s most discriminatory voting practices, and it continues to have its intended effects today,” said the report’s author, Erika Wood, a New York Law School professor and director of the Voting Rights and Civic Participation Project of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law. Read the full report

Florida: Appeals court rules lower court was correct to dismiss recount case | Tallahassee Democrat

The First District Court of Appeal has denied an appeal by three Central Florida voters to overturn a trial court’s ruling dismissing their suit. The court also denied their request to stay Monday’s electoral vote until the recount could take place. The DCA also struck down their motion to appeal the lower court’s ruling denying their motions to overturn the election results and order a recount. “Plaintiffs ask the Florida judicial system to shut down the presidential electoral process at this point to allow their elaborate recount lawsuit to proceed,” Judge Scott. Makar wrote in his concurring opinion, issued Friday. “The trial court’s thorough order, however, is eminently correct: no colorable basis exists for the relief that Plaintiffs seek,” Makar wrote. “At best, Plaintiffs raise political questions that no court -- state or federal-- can resolve….”

Florida: Electors case goes to appellate court | Tallahassee Democrat

Three voters contesting the outcome of the 2016 Florida Presidential Election are determined to stop the state’s 29 electors from casting their ballots for Donald Trump. They have filed a motion with the First District Court of Appeal asking for the scheduled vote to be delayed until a full hand-ballot recount can be made, their attorney said today. “We are going to ask them to delay the vote, let us do the count and if we don’t find anything they can still vote as normal without any extra effort,” said Clint Curtis, a former NASA employee and computer programmer turned lawyer from Orlando. Curtis said he’s received money from Protect Our Elections, a Washington, D.C., based advocacy group that has launched a national letter-writing campaign to all 538 electors to not cast their votes for the president-elect. The website said it has raised over $50,000 to cover his fees.

Florida: Election supervisors to renew push to keep voters’ personal data secret | Tampa Bay Times

Fresh off a smooth election cycle, Florida's 67 county election supervisors will pursue changes to the election laws in the 2017 legislative session. They pitched their ideas for the first time at a meeting Tuesday of the revamped Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, chaired by Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. The supervisors' point man on legislative issues is David Stafford, the Escambia County supervisor of elections. He told senators that the state should follow the lead of 19 other states and join ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, an information-sharing consortium that helps states track down people who are registered to vote in more than one state. (Being registered to vote in more than one state is not a crime, but voting in more than one state would be).

Florida: State moves forward with online voter registration | News Service of Florida

Work remains on pace to allow online voter registration in Florida by next October, state elections officials told lawmakers Tuesday. "We did have a little bit of a hiatus with our meetings. Obviously, we were trying to get through the election, but we have resumed and will continue full steam ahead," Maria Matthews, director of the state Division of Elections, told members of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee. Also Tuesday, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said the state's election database and voting systems remained secured throughout 2016.

Florida: Jill Stein promotes Orlando law firm-backed protests for Florida recount | Orlando Sentinel

An Orlando law firm is calling for protests across the state Sunday backing a full hand recount of the presidential election in Florida - and they just got a boost. Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate behind recount efforts in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, promoted the protests on Twitter Friday. "Here's a list of places Florida voters will rally on Sunday to demand a recount," she said, linking to a list of protest locations including the Orange and Osceola clerks of court offices in Orlando and Kissimmee.

Florida: Voters challenge for recount: A call to address election issues? | CS Monitor

With their call for a recount in Florida, a group of voters may hope to encourage a push for change in voting procedure – even if the recount itself is a long shot. Citing concerns about hacking, malfunctioning voting machines, and voters being turned away, three central Florida voters have brought a lawsuit against President-elect Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and the Sunshine State’s 29 Republican electors. They are calling for a hand recount of all paper ballots, to be paid for by the defendants. The group’s lawyer, Clint Curtis, acknowledged that Mr. Trump, Governor Scott, and others can ignore the recount request entirely. But the suit, the latest of several to question the 2016 election results, may strengthen calls to address election issues.

Florida: Voters sue for recount | USA Today

Three central Florida voters are mounting an unlikely bid to overturn the presidential election result in the Sunshine State. In a lawsuit filed Monday in Leon Circuit Court, they assert that Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump, actually won Florida. The plaintiffs, who live in Osceola and Volusia counties, say the state’s official election results were off because of hacking, malfunctioning voting machines and other problems. They're asking for a hand recount of every paper ballot in Florida, at the expense of defendants including Trump, Gov. Rick Scott and the 29 Republican presidential electors from Florida.

Florida: Jeff Clemens proposes automatic voter registration bill | Florida Politics

Palm Beach County state Senator Jeff Clemens filed legislation this week (SB 72) that would automatically register Floridians to vote when they apply for or renew their driver’s license. “The reason is pretty simple – nobody should have to jump through an extra hoop to exercise their constitutional rights,” says Clemens, who edged out Irv Slosberg in a fiercely combative primary in the Democratic-leaning Senate District 31 in August. Clemens says this is either the third or fourth time he’s proposed such a bill, and he says that his fellow Republicans should embrace it.

Florida: State Supreme Court to review Felon Voting Restoration Amendment | Florida Record

A proposed amendment to restore the voting rights of Florida felons after completion of their sentences received just enough signatures to trigger a review by the Florida Supreme Court and a potential place on the November 2018 ballot. Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi passed the initiative onto the high court to review the language within the Voting Restoration Amendment. The court will review to see if the language is clear and not misleading, and ensure the initiative has only one purpose. A hearing is expected by the end of the year. If approved and if the group supporting the initiative, Floridians for a Fair Democracy, can get enough signatures, it can go on the November 2018 ballot. “The felon voting right initiative is pushed by the recognition that people do make mistakes but deserve a second chance,” American Civil Liberties Union of Florida Director Howard Simon told the Florida Record.

Florida: It’s in the mail, or is it? Broward voters lament vote-by-mail shortfalls | Sun Sentinel

Fuming Broward voters — Republicans and Democrats alike — are complaining that they were shut out of the high-stakes presidential election. They say their mail-in ballots never arrived. "We're unhappy. It's a right given to Americans, and we've been shut out from that right. I'm kind of ticked off at that," said Vito Leccese, 84, a New Jersey snowbird who spends six months a year in Pompano Beach. "This is a presidential election. This is very important. It's so important that they're rioting all over the place because Trump won." Leccese said he had requested mail-in ballots by phone from the Broward supervisor's office with no hiccups in the past. This election, after making his initial ballot requests long before the Nov. 2 deadline, Leccese said he began making follow-up calls Oct. 3 to the supervisor's office. He said they went unanswered.

Florida: Election general counsel sides with judge’s decision about voter registration | Florida Record

As Tuesday's general election approaches, a federal judge's recent rejection of a Florida Democratic Party request to allow unverified voters to cast ballots was the right decision, says an election general counsel. "I believe the judge was correct in determining that the registrations were being processed as quickly as possible," Ronald Labasky, general counsel for the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections (FSASE), told the Florida Record. On Oct. 20, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker said there was no evidence that Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner wasn't doing enough to handle the 72,000 voter registration forms county election offices received the previous week. That backlog, much of which had been blamed on Hurricane Matthew, has been addressed, Labasky said. "Most of the backlog has been eliminated by the state," he said.

Florida: Voting groups say Florida leads in calls to elections hotline | Tampa Bay Times

Elections officials told a woman in Miami who moved from a different county that she could not vote. A volunteer with voting rights groups saw a poll watcher at the North Miami Public Library confront people who asked for language assistance. In Hialeah, voters struggled to get translators. Voters elsewhere complain they haven't received mail-in ballots they requested weeks ago. These were among the 1,700 calls by Florida residents through a national elections hotline — the highest number for any state. As the 2016 presidential race hurtles toward Tuesday's finish line, complaints handled by the National Election Protection Hotline about early voting and mail ballots provide a possible glimpse of any confusion to come.

Florida: West Palm Beach Trump Supporters Use Bullhorns, Scream at Clinton Supporters Outside Poll | Electionland

Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continue to gather in front of the West Palm Beach, Florida, supervisor of elections’ office and shout at Hillary Clinton supporters and voters through bullhorns as they use the early voting location, videos show. “How many Syrian refugees, Muslim refugees, are you taking into your home?” yelled one Trump supporter in a video filmed Sunday afternoon at Clinton supporters across a parking lot. Later she said, “You hypocrites! Separate the people! Over here we have the LGBT, over here we have the blacks, and then over here we have the Hispanics. But I’m going to tell you something, the hard working American people that served in the armed forces support Donald Trump!” Therese Barbera, spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s office, said by email that the sheriff’s office “was not aware” of the incidents in the videos until Electionland called for a statement but that “from what we reviewed we do not believe there are any violations occurring. As far as voter intimidation, we did not observe any infractions in the video,” she added. “Please remember that there are First Amendment privileges being afforded here as long as they don’t violate the law.”

Florida: Seminole elections office receives five stolen, forged absentee ballots | Orlando Sentinel

By mid-October, Susan Halperin became concerned that she and her husband hadn't received their absentee ballots in the mail. So Lawrence Halperin called the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Office to find out what was going on. He was stunned to learn their ballots had already been cast. Someone had stolen the Halperins' ballots, faked their signatures and voted. "He was just floored," said Susan Halperin, a registered Democrat. "To think that someone would actually steal my ballot and fill it out is creepy." The Halperins, who live in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Altamonte Springs just south of State Road 436, weren't the only victims. Supervisor of Elections Mike Ertel said they were among five voters in three homes in Spring Valley whose absentee ballots were stolen and then fraudulently submitted with votes cast by someone else.

Florida: Partisanship Seen in Florida’s Harsh Stance on Felons’ Voting Rights | Newsweek

Leonard "Roscoe" Newton has been in and out of Florida's prisons since before he could vote, starting with a youthful conviction for burglary. He's been a free man for six years now with an important exception: he still can't vote. Newton, who is African American, is among nearly 1.5 million former felons who have been stripped of their right to vote in a state with a history of deciding U.S. presidential elections, sometimes by razor-thin margins of just a few hundred votes. Felons have been disenfranchised in Florida since 1868, although they can seek clemency to restore their voting rights. Since 2011, however, when Republican state leaders toughened the restrictions on felon voting rights, just 2,339 ex-felons have had that right restored, the lowest annual numbers in nearly two decades, according to state data reviewed by Reuters. That compares with more than 155,000 in the prior four years under reforms introduced by Governor Rick Scott's predecessor, moderate Republican governor Charlie Crist, the data shows. Crist, who was governor from 2007 to 2011, made it much easier to restore ex-felons' voting rights.

Florida: Despite Trump’s plea, little sign of interest in poll watching | Tallahassee Democrat

Few local voters have answered Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump's call to sign up as poll watchers to prevent a rigged election. On the campaign trail this week, he warned of the media and partisans conspiring to steal the election. “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary – but also at many polling places –SAD.” Trump tweeted Sunday. Trump’s vision of nefarious forces working to thwart the will of the people has failed to mobilize Leon County supporters to guard against Election Day fraud. “No effect, nothing. None at all,” said Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho.

Florida: Citing ‘obscene’ disenfranchisement, federal judge hands Democrats another Florida court victory | Miami Herald

Calling existing rules “obscene” disenfranchisement, a federal judge in Tallahassee declared late Sunday that Florida must provide a method for voters to fix signature problems that might arise when they vote by mail in the presidential election. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling was a victory for the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee, which sued the state Oct. 3 arguing Florida canvassing boards shouldn’t immediately reject a ballot if a voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file. The state gives voters who forget to sign their mail ballots a chance to fix the problem before Election Day — but doesn’t offer voters with mismatched signatures the same opportunity. Walker ruled the “bizarre” double-standard was unconstitutional. “It is illogical, irrational, and patently bizarre for the State of Florida to withhold the opportunity to cure from mismatched-signature voters while providing that same opportunity to no-signature voters,” he wrote. “And in doing so, the State of Florida has categorically disenfranchised thousands of voters arguably for no reason other than they have poor handwriting or their handwriting has changed over time.”

Florida: Thousands of new voters register in Florida after deadline is extended | Bradenton Herald

The extra week of voter registration across Florida that Gov. Rick Scott initially opposed has already produced nearly 37,000 new voters and the increase will keep growing in the coming days as Florida sets an all-time record in the total number of voters. Secretary of State Ken Detzner reported late Tuesday that 36,823 voter registration forms were verified and are active in the state voter database and that another 26,773 applicants are being verified, for a potential bounty of nearly 64,000 additional voters, with an undetermined additional number of voter forms being mailed that haven't yet arrived at county elections offices. To put that number in perspective, Scott won reelection as governor two years ago by 64,145 votes. Detzner said every voter registration application must be verified using voters' Social Security numbers and Florida driver’s license numbers to confirm voters' IDs. Once that is done, the information is sent to the county supervisor of elections, who adds the voter to the rolls.

Florida: Federal judge assails Florida election official’s action as an ‘undeclared war’ on right to vote | Los Angeles Times

A federal judge on Saturday issued a scathing rebuke to Florida's top election official in an order canceling a hearing on a lawsuit over vote-by-mail ballots. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker accused Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner of delaying a hearing on the lawsuit “so that he could use every second available to run out the clock” so there wouldn't be enough time to address problems raised in the lawsuit. The judge also said Detzner's actions amounted to an “undeclared war” on the right to vote in Florida, the largest swing state in the presidential election. The judge in Tallahassee, Fla., said he would make a decision on the lawsuit without a hearing that had been set for Monday.

Florida: Judge Rebukes Florida’s Top Election Official in Ballot Case | Associated Press

A federal judge on Saturday issued a scathing rebuke to Florida's top election official in an order cancelling a hearing on a lawsuit over vote-by-mail ballots. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker accused Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner of delaying a hearing on the lawsuit "so that he could use every second available to run out the clock" so there wouldn't be enough time to address problems raised in the lawsuit. The judge also said Detzner's actions amounted to an "undeclared war' on the right to vote in Florida, the largest swing state in the presidential election. The judge in Tallahassee, Florida said he will make a decision on the lawsuit without a hearing that had been set for Monday. "This court will not allow the Florida Secretary of State — a high-level officer of the State of Florida — to take a knee and deprive Florida citizens of their most precious right," Walker said in his order.

Florida: Federal investigators find evidence Florida election-systems vendor was hacked | CNN

Federal investigators believe Russian hackers were behind cyberattacks on a contractor for Florida's election system that may have exposed the personal data of Florida voters, according to US officials briefed on the probe. The hack of the Florida contractor comes on the heels of hacks in Illinois, in which personal data of tens of thousands of voters may have been stolen, and one in Arizona, in which investigators now believe the data of voters was likely exposed. The FBI, in the coming days, is preparing to provide updated guidance to state elections officials around the US aiming to help them spot suspicious activity on their computer networks. Several states have reported attempted scans of their computer systems, which often is a precursor to a breach.

Florida: FBI: Russia likely hacked Florida election contractor and Clinton campaign chairman | SC Magazine

U.S. intelligence officials' concerns of a Russian hacking operation against political targets continues to escalate, as FBI officials now believe Russian intelligence agencies likely orchestrated the hacks of emails belonging to a contractor for Florida's election system and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Podesta's emails were released in the latest batch of emails released by Wikileaks. Trump advisor Roger Stone admitted Wednesday that he had “back-channel communication” with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A day earlier, Podesta told Bloomberg on Tuesday that it is “a reasonable assumption or at least a reasonable conclusion” that the Trump campaign knew about the most recent WikiLeaks leaks before their release. He pointed to a tweet from Stone that claimed: “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta's time in the barrel.”