{"id":233,"date":"2023-02-16T11:37:12","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T16:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions\/"},"modified":"2023-02-16T11:37:12","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T16:37:12","slug":"response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press\/response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions\/","title":{"rendered":"Response to DeSantis Signing Election Crimes Law Expanding Statewide Prosecutor’s Power to Target People with Past Convictions"},"template":"","class_list":["post-233","press","type-press","status-publish","hentry","press_type-press-release"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"The new law is an unnecessary and wasteful expansion of state prosecutorial power that could intimidate eligible voters with past convictions from exercising their right to vote.\r\n","featured_image":"","press_type":149,"authors":[null],"related_issues":[109,402],"related_work":false,"location":12},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.<\/strong> -<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Yesterday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 4B (SB 4B), an unnecessary and harmful expansion of the Office of Statewide Prosecution\u2019s (\"OSP\") authority to investigate and prosecute certain crimes related to voting, petition activities, and voter registration.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

SB 4B was quickly introduced and signed into law after multiple Florida courts concluded that the OSP lacked the <\/span>authority to prosecute some of the 20 people with past convictions who were arrested last August, after investigations by the Office of Election Crimes and Security, for what appear to be honest mistakes about their eligibility to vote<\/span>. Rather than fix Florida\u2019s complex and unnavigable system for people with past felony convictions to determine their voting eligibility, this new law gives Governor DeSantis and his political allies more authority to prosecute alleged voting misconduct that a local prosecutor might not be willing to prosecute because the evidence fails to show an individual willfully broke the law.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A coalition of non-partisan civil and voting rights groups, including NAACP Florida, ACLU of Florida, Common Cause Florida, All Voting is Local Action, Latino Justice PRLDEF, League of Women Voters of Florida, Legal Defense Fund, and Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law signed <\/span>joint testimony<\/a>\u00a0opposing the bill.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

NAACP Florida, ACLU of Florida, Common Cause Florida, League of Women Voters of Florida, Legal Defense Fund, and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law responded to yesterday's signing with the following statement:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\u201cIn the face of losses in the courts, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature have decided to change the rules themselves.\u00a0 Yesterday\u2019s signing marks a new low, with a majority of state lawmakers \u2013 despite compelling arguments against the bill by the minority \u2013 giving DeSantis and his administration more authority to prosecute Floridians with past convictions who have made honest mistakes about their voting eligibility. It is not the voters who are at fault. It is the State of Florida that created this problem in reaction to voters\u2019 passage of Amendment 4. The DeSantis Administration and the state legislature made it nearly impossible for people with past convictions to determine their eligibility to vote and the state continues to refuse to provide any meaningful guidance to ensure that these Floridians can find out whether they\u2019re eligible to vote.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cInstead, state leaders have doubled down on their fruitless hunt for widespread voter fraud, which doesn't exist, as evidenced by the Office of Election Crimes and Security\u2019s very own data. This new law unfairly targets voters with past convictions, particularly Black Floridians, who have been disproportionately impacted by the prosecutions led by the DeSantis Administration.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe are deeply concerned about the consequences: the law will only further intimidate Black and brown voters, risk further prosecutions of Floridians with past convictions for their inability to navigate an unnavigable system for determining their eligibility to vote, and disenfranchise eligible voters with past convictions from participating in our democracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>"}}]},"yoast_head":"\nResponse to DeSantis Signing Election Crimes Law Expanding Statewide Prosecutor’s Power to Target People with Past Convictions - Common Cause Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Response to DeSantis Signing Election Crimes Law Expanding Statewide Prosecutor’s Power to Target People with Past Convictions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press\/response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Florida\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/press-releases\/response-to-desantis-signing-election-crimes-law-expanding-statewide-prosecutors-power-to-target-people-with-past-convictions\/\",\"name\":\"Response to DeSantis Signing Election Crimes Law Expanding Statewide Prosecutor’s Power to Target People with Past Convictions - 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