Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Florida Voter Suppression Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Go. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a new voter suppression bill, Senate Bill 90, into law on Thursday morning after the Republican-held state Legislature passed it in a late night session in April. The bill is one of many efforts to restrict and suppress the vote that the governor has endorsed over the last few months as he and his Republican colleagues continue to promote the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen. S.B. 90 takes some of the worst provisions from Georgia’s omnibus voter suppression law Senate Bill 202 and brings them to the Sunshine State. The law bans anyone except poll workers from distributing food and water to voters waiting in line, cuts the period over which absentee ballot requests will be honored and shortens the time in which ballot drop boxes may be used.
The governor signed the legislation at a closed event where the only press allowed was Fox News. The event was exclusively streamed on Fox and Friends. Litigation against the new law is expected after voting rights groups and activists made their opposition to the legislation clear. S.B. 90 is the first major voter suppression bill that Florida has passed into law this year, although Republicans in the legislature have proposed many others.