VICE News: Looks Like Ron DeSantis Is Getting His Election Police Force

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ grand plan for an election police force has been widely panned as an absolutely terrible idea in practice by experts nationally. But it didn’t prevent Florida’s state legislature from passing a bill to create what’s essentially a new, first-of-its-kind security force to address a problem that doesn’t exist.

Florida’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to pass Senate Bill 524 Wednesday night, the last hurdle that the proposal championed by DeSantis earlier this year needed to cross before landing on the governor’s desk. …

Experts also told VICE News the election integrity unit would be redundant since Florida already has an election audit process in place. Plus, the Department of Law Enforcement, along with the FBI, already investigates illicit activity at the polls.

“The governor of Florida does not have control over all Florida police departments or the FBI,” Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for Common Cause, told VICE News when DeSantis first announced his plans. “And by proposing this integrity unit, it seems like that’s what he wants: a personal, political goon squad.”