Associated Press: Florida is a model for voting. The GOP wants change anyway.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida was a model citizen when it came to elections in 2020. The state showed off its years of voting reforms. Even as Donald Trump railed against voting systems elsewhere, he praised Florida and urged his supporters to trust its vote-by-mail system. And, indeed, results were reported quickly and accurately. Turnout soared.

It was all overseen by GOP officials. And Trump won, continuing Republicans’ growing dominance in the state.

Yet three months later, Florida Republicans have set out to overhaul the state’s voting system anyway. GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday proposed an array of voting changes, while state lawmakers have introduced legislation that makes it harder to vote by mail. To explain the efforts, Florida Republicans point not to evidence of problems but to the potential for voter fraud and suspicion about the process. …

Florida Republicans’ push to change voting laws shows how deep false claims about mass voter fraud spread by Trump have burrowed into Republicans’ belief system. The party is now stampeding to solve a problem that most nonpartisan experts and courts say does not exist. Their efforts are threatening to dismantle years of bipartisan moves to boost voting in several states, including places where the GOP has thrived under the current system.

And it would result in making it more difficult to vote.

“We cannot comprehend where they’re coming from,” said Anjenys Gonzalez-Eilert of Florida Common Cause, noting the GOP has long been a supporter and beneficiary of mail voting in the state.