With the signature of the Republican governor, Florida became one of the first states in the country with a department focused on electoral fraud, an extremely rare problem that has become a lively issue for some Republicans since the loss of former President Donald Trump in 2020.
“I don’t think there’s another place in the country where you have to have more confidence that your vote counts than in Florida,” DeSantis told a news conference before signing the law.
DeSantis, who will be re-elected this year and weighs his candidacy for president in 2024, signed the bill while working to smooth over his powers with his party’s ultra-conservative wing. The bill comes after DeSantis signed a series of other controversial measures last week, including two bills targeting Disney and legislation that imposes restrictions on how schools and businesses can talk about race and gender.
The new law marks the second major overhaul of Florida’s election laws since the 2020 election, as Trump supporters are pushing for more voting restrictions and changes to the election administration ahead of the midterm elections. Trump and his allies falsely claim that widespread electoral fraud led to his defeat in 2020.
Trump won Sunshine State by a comfortable margin that year, and Florida officials, including DeSantis, said earlier that the 2020 election went smoothly.
Electoral fraud is extremely rare. The Florida Secretary of State’s office said it had received 262 complaints of election fraud in the 2020 election and forwarded 75 to law enforcement or prosecutors. Nearly 11 million Florida voters voted in the presidential race that year.
The new law establishes the Florida State Department’s Office of Electoral Crime and Security, an agency under the jurisdiction of DeSantis, with 15 employees to conduct preliminary investigations into election fraud. In addition, the measure requires DeSantis to appoint up to 10 law enforcement officers in the Florida law enforcement department to investigate election crimes.
During a press conference Monday, DeSantis said local supervisors and prosecutors did not necessarily have the expertise and tools to investigate voting complaints. The new employees will specialize in election-related crimes, he said.
“We just want to make sure that whatever laws are in the books, that these laws apply,” the governor added.
The combined program will cost $ 3.7 million, said lead spokesman Daniel Perez, a leading sponsor, during a legislative debate. Initially, DeSantis asked for nearly $ 6 million for a 52-member force.
Two states – Florida and neighboring Georgia – have taken steps in recent weeks to boost police crime management.
Florida’s new law also increases penalties for violating Florida’s election laws. This makes it a crime to collect and submit more than two ballots by mail on behalf of other voters. It was a crime before. It also increased the fine from $ 1,000 to $ 50,000 for organizations that violate voter registration laws.
Cecil Scoon, president of the Florida Women’s Voters League, called the new $ 50,000 fine a “direct threat” to her organization.
“Combining increased fines with new election investigators doesn’t make you feel warm or comfortable,” she told CNN in March as state lawmakers discussed the measure.
The new law also extends the existing ban on private donations to include “the cost of any litigation related to the election administration.” Critics say this will cut off free legal aid to election officials, who could face additional scrutiny under the new law. He also required election supervisors to clean voter lists annually, not every two years, and imposed a $ 1,000 fine for changing party registration without their consent. This provision is in line with recent reports in South Florida that some older voters have changed their party affiliation from a Democrat to a Republican without their knowledge. DeSantis’s action follows a court ruling on March 31 that said several aspects of an earlier Florida election law passed in 2021 were unconstitutional and misdirected by black voters. In that ruling, Federal Judge Mark Walker also barred the state from making any future changes to the election rules that are similar to the provisions he rejected.
Florida officials have already given notice that they intend to appeal the decision to the 11th District Court of Appeals. Electoral law experts say Walker’s decision is likely to be overturned by either the conservative 11th district or the US Supreme Court.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
CNN’s Steve Contorno contributed to this story.
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